What would you do in a car jacking situation?
In today’s video and post I discuss the options you have for dealing with 2 different car jacking scenarios and a few things that you should NOT do.
Sitting at Red Light w/o Cars
In this car jacking scenario you are at a red light with no cars in front of you.
First off your car’s doors should always be locked; in fact that is the very first thing that you should do once you get in your car.
Imagine a man runs up to your car from a blind spot, yes the same blind spot you have in your side view mirror. He pulls on the door handle to pull you out of the car but of course your door is locked. When you look up you see him point a handgun at you and yell for you to get out of the car.
Option 1 – Give Him Your Car
While this certainly seems like the safest action to take – to be compliant – realize that you don’t fully know this person’s intentions once you get out of the car.
Plus you might have a child in the car and I doubt your would-be car jacker will be courteous enough to give you time to unbuckle their car seat and get them out.
If you do get out then just take off running. If they indeed just wanted your car their main focus will be to get in and drive off.
Remember, they don’t want to get caught… unless they are mentally unstable in which case all bets are off and anything can happen.
Which leads me to a different option…
Option 2 – Look, Duck, Take Off
What is better than being car jacked? Not being car jacked of course.
A quick action you can take is to look at cross traffic to make sure no cars are coming. If it is safe then duck and hit the accelerator.
If there are other’s in the car inform them to duck as well. Of course stabilize the steering wheel.
If the car jacker is in their somewhat reasonable mind their goal was your car… the gun was a tool of intimidation and their intention was not murder. If you drive off suddenly it is unlikely they will shoot at your car.
If they do shoot at your car realize that handgun bullet penetration on a moving vehicle is pretty low. Bullets tend to ricochet off of the angles of the windows and vehicle pretty consistently.
It is advisable to drill this or at least talk about it with people who are commonly in your car such as your family; the same way you would do a fire drill at your home.
Car Jacked in a Parking Lot
What if you can’t drive off because there is a car in front of you or a wall; such as in a parking lot?
Option 1 – Give Them Your Car…
Once again this is an option but has the same pros and cons as before.
Option 2 – Hide the Keys, Get Out, Run
This could be called Option 1B since technically you are still getting out of the car and have the same pros and cons with one difference…
You can take the keys out of the ignition, drop them between your seat and the center console. Don’t let your car jacker see this of course which means you need to practice it.
Odds are they will struggle to find the keys and will come looking for you. That means when you get out you had better run like crazy. Since it will take them a while to find them they might just run off because remember… they are afraid of getting caught.
This version simply allows you to probably keep your car and be a bit of an a-hole back to the would-be car jacker.
This may not be a good idea if you have kids who can’t take off and run because the attacker will simply grab the closest person and demand the keys.
Option 3 – Gun Disarm
Only if you are fairly certain that your disarm will work is this a viable option.
DO NOT try to reach out of the car and grab the gun through the window while you are seated. They will just pull the gun back and now they know your intentions and will keep their distance or you might accidentally get shot or get someone else shot.
DO NOT try to slam the door into them as you open it. It probably won’t knock the gun out of their hands and if it does the car door will likely block your ability to grab it.
DO act compliant and get out of the car. They will come around to aggressively yank you out of the way, possibly attempt to hit you several times. When they are close enough is when you go for your disarm.
Remember there is a risk if you fail. I would always advise anyone in the car with me to run. This applies to any of the options when you get out of the vehicle. You want people you care about as far away as possible regardless of how it ends up going. They should run and get behind other vehicles to block stray bullets as they are running away to safety and calling 911.
Final Thoughts
If your real reason to practice martial arts to be able to defend yourself and your loved ones then these are the types of scenarios you should be thinking about. Putting on the boxing gloves and sparring or rolling on the ground won’t prepare you for real violence in most cases.
Still do those things but add this in to your visualization practice.
Until next time,
Brian
