Wife's near draw experience

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Polynikes

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The following incident occurred yesterday afternoon to Mrs. Polynikes while shopping at a local Wal-Mart. She had parked at the North edge of the parking lot and had just finished doing some shopping with our two youngins,' ages three and one. She had parked her vehicle with the driver side facing the back, empty corner of the parking lot and the passenger side towards the building. After loading the kids in to the car and then placing the groceries on the passenger seat, Mrs. Polynikes walked around the back of the car to get in on the driver's side. It is here that our scenario begins...

As Mrs. Polynikes rounds the back corner of the vehicle she sees a young woman approaching from the empty corner of the parking lot, where there had not been anyone a moment ago. The woman is headed straight for Mrs. Polynikes. She's not carrying a purse or any bags that would indicate she had been shopping or intended to shop, but she does have her right hand tucked underneath the blue down vest she's wearing, with her left hand holding the edge of the vest closed. Mental alarms begin to sound as Mrs. Polynikes realizes that a black sedan with a male driver has pulled up to a stop nearby and also he is also focusing his attention on Mrs. Polynikes. The woman is still coming fast, hand inside the down vest. Mrs. Polynikes uses the purse on her left shoulder to shield her movement as she slides her hand under her shirt to the grip of her Bodyguard .38 in a Flashbang holster. At the angle the woman is approaching from there is no way that she could have seen this action and she keeps coming, now only about 20 feet away. Mrs. Polynikes prepares to give a verbal warning, when suddenly the male in the car calls out to the approaching woman,

"Yo, she's not one to *explicative* with."

From the angle he was keeping watch from, the driver of the black sedan apparently caught the subtle motion of Mrs. Polynikes as she reached for her handgun. The woman, hearing the warning, abruptly changes direction and jumps in the back of the black sedan and the pair speeds off. Mrs. Polynikes quickly gets in her own vehicle and exits the parking lot.

From the careful positioning of the two people, one approaching and the other on lookout, as well as the quick bug-out without hesitating it appears that this may have been something practiced before. The bottom line here seems to be that situational awareness carried the day, and what could have been a bad situation ended with all my loved ones safe. :)
 
I think Mrs. Polynikes deserves a prize for some well executed SA and reaction to threat. I hope you plan to buy her dinner.:D

On a critical note, why did she not just get into the car that the kids were already loaded up in and get the heck out of there?
 
....so did Mrs Polynikes call the POLICE and make a report???

The police could check with Walmart's security video surveillance for an ID of the car and perhaps a licenses plate number.
 
Stressfire, the way I understand it, at the angle the other woman was approaching from, Mrs. Polynikes would have had to travel towards her and close the distance in order to reach the driver side door. She was standing at the rear of the vehicle (and it's a good sized SUV) :)
 
The police could check with Walmart's security video surveillance for an ID of the car and perhaps a licenses plate number.
Click to expand...

Indeed, just thought of it after reading Skadoosh's post, but this would appear to be something that has been "perfected."

Might have been a robbery or attempted carjacking...could have also been after the kids

and it's a good sized SUV
Click to expand...

Ah, I get ya now. Although, big SUV? The better to run your butt down with:)
 
So were the police alerted? wal mart security if there is any alerted? What town was this in? Mighty brave criminals these days.
 
She did great but I am going to offer some future suggestions.

Verbal engagment sooner that 20ft. If she is sure she is the target. If the threat continues demand they stop. If they continue simply shout (don't rob me go away) only begin to fall back to some cover at the same time. This gets you closer to cover and maintains some seperation. If they don't stop after demands to do so its time to draw and if that does work its the big BANG

I'm glad it ended well.
 
Polynikes,

I am glad to hear that your wife was not harmed. I hope she called the police and made a report on the incident.
 
Your wife was EXTRA aware!

Kudos to your wife for not only having the SA to be aware of (and prepared to deal with) the approaching threat, but for having the extra SA to spot the accomplice!

This is the biggest mistake most of us would make: focusing on the most obvious threat to the exclusion of everything else around ("tunnel vision").

We should strive to always have 360º awareness, but especially when we are being approached in a manner that makes us think we are about to be "interviewed" ("cased") as a prelude to being victimized.

As a teenager on the streets of NYC, there was always the possibility of getting "jumped" (this was even before the word "mugged" came into use). I learned, when approached by a stranger, to immediately look around to see if he had a partner. But even a half-century later I have to force myself to remember to take that precaution.
 
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Mrs. Polynikes says "Thank you" for all the encouraging responses so far. As far as contacting the police, she has not done so as of yet. She had a bad experience several years ago when trying to report a different incident (road raging driver trying to run her off the road) and the officer she spoke to basically made it seem as though she was wasting their time by even making the report. They didn't even bother to fill out any official paperwork to document the incident. She's a little "shy" about putting herself through that again, with the limited information she has about this recent encounter.
 
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She's not alone. Most crimes of this sort that don't come to fruition are never reported, or so I've been led to believe.
A lot of hassle for zero results.
 
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