My wife called me yesterday to tell me she was sick of going to Costco. It was only the second time since the Chinese Plague struck. The scowling customers, masks, every other register open, lines to the middle of the store… She said it’s not worth it and not fun anymore.
She then calls me 15 minutes later at 2 in the afternoon, to tell me she was robbed in the parking lot.
She unlocked the car, started the engine to start cooling the car while she loaded groceries, threw her purse with her wallet in it on the front passenger seat, once done loading she pushed the cart about 4 parking spots over to the cart coral and went back to the car, got in and drove off.
10 minutes later she gets a call from the bank saying, did you just try to buy $3,500 worth of stuff at Sam’s! She looks in her purse and her wallet is missing! The bank tells her that they actually have a security bulletin for the Costco parking lot with No Contact Robberies and then immediate shopping down the street at Sam’s with the stolen credit cards, over the span of the last couple of weeks.
The take away learning points here - ALWAYS LIVE IN THE YELLOW. (Cooper’s colors)
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She didn’t live with her head on a swivel prior to the act. The criminal HAD to be hiding in plain site, just looking like a fellow customer.
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Don’t leave your car unattended while unlocked ever in public. I already use the story of bad guys/gals crouching down and opening the passenger door while your filling your gas tank and taking your stuff, now I’ll add this story.
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Carry your EDC (Firearm) with you EVERYWHERE. She had her revolver in a firearm pocket in her purse, in the car and not on her person. They did NOT take the purse just the little wallet out of the purse. She could have lost her firearm as well which is more important than a wallet, credit cards and about $200 in cash.
What if she came back to the car and surprised herself and them and they turned to attack her WITHOUT her EDC or worse, they found her EDC and used it on her! Carry your EDC everywhere all the time!
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2pm in the afternoon, the monsters don’t just come out at night. The Costco parking lot at that time of day is full of normal safe shoppers (sheep) walking around everywhere. Don’t get complacent.
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This could have been a brick to the head instead of a No Contact Robbery.
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Get formal training and practice this training. Don’t just practice with your firearm but practice your Condition Yellow. Look around in the store, restaurant, gas station, parking lot, for monsters. Profile people and their actions. Play a game with it or an exercise. See how many people you can Identify as a possible threat or could quickly get to you in your safety zone. Bad guys now commit assaults just for the fun of it.
They won’t just beeline walking up to you with a brick. A brick or rock will be in maybe a McDonalds bag while in the other hand they are holding and drinking their McDonalds drink. They maybe pushing a grocery cart with a few bags in it with a rock, brick or weapon in one of the bags.
What other places do you think should be low risk (Costco parking lot at 2pm in the afternoon, in a middle class suburban area) but in actuality be of higher risk? Getting out of the car to use the drop box at the library, dropping the kids off at school or day care, going in to check your PO box, ,
What different ways could a monster be described as, big mean dude, nice dressed lady, a guy or gal jogging, a guy on bike, or even a mom pushing a kid in the stroller, ?
