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Security Tips for the Woman on Her Own

Photo: caminodesantiagome

Most prepper sites discuss options and methods for a group. Not everyone is a group! Some are single, widowed or divorced individuals facing the world alone or with children in their care. This can apply to the young, old, male or female. But more often than not the targeted victims tend to be a woman. Mainly because the perpetrators of robberies, burglaries, rapes, assaults, etc… See women as easier targets. Female preppers not only exist but at times exist quite well on their own. It’s a group onto itself that shouldn’t be overlooked; they have as many skills as do their male counterparts. Because they are female they often need more security preventing them from being seen as easy prey. Here are some tips that as a parent of both daughters and a son and as the child of a widowed mother found to be useful and more importantly have a proven track record of success.

• Install motion detecting lights around your property. Criminals like to be in the shadows, insure your home has fewer places to hide and they may move on to an easier target.
• Get a dog or a tape of a dog. A noisy dog regardless of the size can be a living alarm system and can be fiercely protective of their owner and their property. Criminals know and respect this. You can even purchase an alarm that is called the noisy dog alarm Rex who’s bark changes as the intruder moves. See it HERE.  
• Use high quality locks and doors. Re-enforce your doors. (See how to do this HERE) If you must use a handyman to do these things and if you can, use a couple different venders so that no one single employee knows all your security measures.
• Learn how to use tools. In a SHTF event this will be obviously useful and during normal times it prevents the necessity of using a maintenance service giving a stranger access to your home.
• Avoid being out alone at night if you can. Walk your dog and take your trash to the curb during daylight hours.
• If you’re going to be out alone at night, take your own or a friend’s dog. I know that if it isn’t your dog it can kind of be a pain to borrow one but your friend will appreciate the help walking their dog, you won’t be completely alone, and someone with a dog is a harder target to attack as the dog’s reaction is an unknown.
• Walk out of the shadows and out of arms reach from any buildings. On smaller less trafficked areas walk down the middle of the road.
• In an area with more foot traffic, use your cell phone while walking so that someone knows that you are there and alone. Make sure the person you’re talking to knows where you are and that if your phone should suddenly go dead not to try and return your call but rather to notify police immediately. In areas with less foot traffic, keep your hands free and if using your cell phone do so hands free but in a manner that allows you to hear what is going on around you.
• Don’t wear headphones in a manner that prevents you from hearing even the small things. Nothing is scarier than hearing those footsteps behind you other than NOT hearing them!
• Walk with confidence and an assured step. The less you look like a victim the less likely you are to be one. But do so with awareness; don’t worry about what anyone thinks of the crazy person walking down the middle of the road who looks around a lot. It may be noticeable but the more noticeable the less opportunity for a criminal in the dark to quietly and secretly attack.
• Take a self-defense class. They are preferable to even a martial arts class as they teach you how to fight without the honor involved with the martial arts. Both are wise but if you are only going to take one make it the self-defense and learn where and how to gouge and kick where it counts rather than fancy flips and kicks. 3 of my daughters are black belts and all of my children have taken self-defense courses. My black belted ladies assure me that it is a whole different battle when on the street and not on a safety mat.
• If you own a firearm, know how to use it, and practice. Never allow that weapon to be taken from you to be used against you. If unable or unwilling to use a firearm then it is best you don’t carry it. Hesitation can be deadly for you. You are a good person with a conscience and morals… the criminal is not and will use the moment of reflection to take the weapon or do you harm as they already know what is happening and what their intentions are, you don’t so they won’t hesitate.
• If carrying any item, carry it in a manner that allows you to use it as a weapon. Examples can be an umbrella, a heavy purse, your keys clenched between your fingers with a key sticking out. These items will at the very least make you more difficult to control and any defensive action you take more forceful and painful to the attacker.
• As when walking alone, always move at a confident pace obviously aware of what is going on around you. A victim looks easy to control and unaware. If you know you’re going to be walking alone, wear appropriate clothing to fight and or run. Trying to run in high heels or a constrictive skirt can make you easier to catch.
• Look the people you meet directly in the eye. American’s tend to feel this is a violation of personal space or an invitation to speak and especially women are taught not to engage or be rude. But looking people in the eyes gives off an air of confidence, makes identification easier, and frankly the would be attacker a bit more cautious and uncomfortable approaching you.
• If your phone is listed, use your initials or a less feminine version of your name. If not in the same area as your family, use your father or brother’s name. No point in advertising your name, address and phone number. If being unlisted is feasible for you, do so.
• If you have voice mail or an answering machine. Have a male relative or friend record your outgoing message.
• Keep your home from appearing from the outside to be too feminine. Leave a pair of big boots or a big dog dish outside the door preferably the back door where the fact that they have been sitting there unused is not as noticeable. Save the pink accessories for indoor decorating.
• Take care with your landscaping. Keep the bushes near your door ways and front walk low enough to see over or through.
• If you have bushes near your windows make sure they have thorns and are kept trimmed to below window height to make them less appealing to anyone trying to hide in them and allow you a clear view out of your windows.
• Keep your drapes closed after dark so that from the outside no one can see only a single person moving about the home.
• Lock your doors even when you are home during daylight hours. In my own area, as of late there have been a rash of attempted burglaries where the home owner was home but that fact was unknown to the perp.
• Use a light timer to vary the lighting in your home. This prevents you from having to enter a dark residence and people off the street from becoming familiar with your schedule. You can use a plug in timer like this one HERE or one for hard wired lighting by replacing your light switch with one like this one  seen HERE
• If anything looks disturbed or unusual do not enter the residence. Leave and return with someone or call authorities. Do not worry about looking foolish, you look better unharmed any way you stay that way!
• Use your OPEC wisely. Neighbors and Friends may know you live alone or alone with children. However, everyone you meet doesn’t need to know. No one outside a specific few should know you are ready for an emergency. A lone person with supplies can become a target for a group when SHTF. Even during normal times those who become obsessed with others lean toward those who appear more obtainable or easy to target because they are alone.
• Because you are alone, hunkering down may be wiser than trying to bug out in the early part of a disaster. No one male or female wants to be wandering around in a bad scene alone. You must sleep sometime and you can only do so much as one person toward security, food and water procurement, etc… If you have other single friends this may be something you want to discuss to meet up and travel together. But a single individual can hide alone easier than can a group.
• Again alone even hunkering down you are only able to do so much. Prepare to defend your home as passively as possible. Have plywood predrilled to cover windows, have a trolley or plant mover available to move large furniture in front of doors, trip wires ready to be set, etc… So that a single person alone can close up the home as quickly as possible.
• Be cautious when shopping for supplies. Meals for one and cat food being the only things in your shopping cart can be a sign of someone living alone without a dog. I have a friend who was accosted by another shopper at our local market. Now she always makes her first and last stops at the grocery the pet food isle. Where she loads a big bag of dog food and pushes it around as she does her shopping and replaces it back on the shelf when ready to check out!
• Always keep your doors locked when driving and your windows rolled up far enough that you cannot be grabbed from the outside.
• As much as possible keep your routine flexible, not using the same routine daily. I know of a case where an ex was able to track the spouse because of the knowledge of the other’s daily routine. A different location but the same reason day after day and passed that information onto a process server! But it could have been anyone for a more aggressive reason.
• If you have additional parking available to you, be a good neighbor and allow your neighbor to park their extra vehicle in your spot or driveway especially if you are going to be gone a few days. This gives the impression someone else is there and you are not alone nor is the house empty. Of course have your mail held and if you receive a paper have it also stopped while you are away.
• Keep your vehicle or mode of transport in good condition. Know how to do at least the basic maintenance yourself. You don’t want a flat tire or an oil change to tag you as a woman alone. Nor be left alone on a dark road with car issues.
• if you don’t know how to fix your vehicle on your own, invest in insurance such as AAA or another such roadside assistance company. Never trust a tow driver or other road side mechanic you didn’t call for or whom hasn’t shown you ID verifying they are who you called. Most reputable services will not only give you a time frame for their assistance to arrive but the individual’s name so you can confirm they are who they say they are.
• Never accept a ride from anyone you don’t know if your vehicle is disabled or you have missed your public transport. Much better to give the good Samaritan a number they can call for you or to use a taxi etc… Those few dollars spent are well worth your piece of mind and safety. All legitimate cab companies and Uber accept credit cards these days. So carrying extra cash isn’t necessary.
• When traveling rather than sitting alone  at the bus station or in an airport sit near a group and make it less obvious that you are traveling alone.
• In the hotel the 3rd to the 5th floors are usually the safest. They are high enough to keep you out of the mist of any chaos happening outside and the windows are high enough to prevent entry from the outside yet still easily reachable by the fire department ladders. They also require anyone entering the building to attempt to get up a few floors without being seen either by other guests or the facilities’ security cameras. It is much easier to sneak in and out of a 1st or 2nd story than a 3rd!
• Skip the extra exercise gained by parking further away or using the stairs unless you have a friend that will do it with you. Parking lots and stair wells are prime hunting grounds for attackers.
• If you are unable to avoid an attack. No matter what the attacker says, make as much noise as possible. Bringing attention to the situation is the last thing he/she wants no matter what they say.
• Refuse to leave the primary scene with an attacker, even one that is armed. At this point if your attacker is going to harm you… better right there than at secondary location where they have the privacy to do so. If they are going to shoot or stab you and are willing to do so where you are, they are even more likely to do so in a secondary location of their choosing. Only at the secondary location there will be no witnesses to frighten them off, interfere and assist you or in the worst case see that you get medical assistance as soon as possible. You are more likely to be killed in a location where no one calls for an ambulance immediately even if you survive the initial attack.
• Make sure someone knows where you should be most of the time. When you live alone it is easy to be “gone” and no one missed you because they were not expecting to see you. This often happens to the single elderly person. I cannot count the news reports of someone being found days or weeks after they passed that we have seen. I cannot help but wonder if they had been found sooner if they might have been saved.
• Most important of all, TRUST yourself. If your instincts tell you something is wrong or feels like it’s off. It probably is! Always better safe than sorry no matter how foolish it may make you feel at the moment.

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