SEAL Survival Guide (32 page)
Read SEAL Survival Guide Online
Authors: Cade Courtley
• In all cases, keep your cell phone or radio with you and immediately alert someone regarding your situation.
During a Carjacking
In most carjacking situations, the attackers are interested only in the vehicle. In many instances, you can get off the X by simply surrendering your keys and stepping aside. If this is not an option, try to stay calm, and if given the time, perform an immediate threat assessment. From this threat assessment information, you must decide the best course of action: compliance, flight, or fight.
• Type of attack: nonviolent or violent?
• Environment: isolated or public?
• Mental state of attacker: reasonable or nervous?
• Number of attackers.
• Weapons.
• Whether or not children are present in your vehicle.
Never risk your life for property.
COMPLIANCE—GIVING UP YOUR CAR
In most cases, giving up your car is absolutely the right thing to do. When doing so, make sure you:
1. Listen carefully to all directions.
2. Make no quick or sudden movements that the attacker could construe as a counterattack.
3. Get your seat belt off. If this becomes violent, you don’t want to be pinned in your seat.
4. Always keep your hands in plain view. Tell the attacker every move in advance.
5. Inform the carjacker that the car is installed with a locator device that cannot be deactivated.
6. Make the attacker aware if children are present. The attacker may be focused only on the driver and not know children are in the car.
FLEEING
Most of the time, the carjacker wants your keys and you out of the car. However, if you have a child in the car or feel that complying will mean certain death,
pull the trigger!
If you are already outside of the car, “accidentally” dropping the keys or tossing them a short distance
might give you the moment you need to flee on foot. If still inside, finding a way to distract the carjacker momentarily might enable you to use the power of your vehicle and drive away.
WHEN A CARJACKING BECOMES AN ABDUCTION
If you are driving
In a number of cases, the carjacker will want you to drive the car, perhaps to participate in an even larger crime, or even to rape or murder you. If you find yourself in this situation, the carjacker might be in the passenger seat or in the seat behind you, and will most likely have a weapon pointed at you. If you are driving, you must remain calm, while feigning that you are overly panicky to the attacker. By acting as if you are uncontrollably nervous, you can drive erratically, with the goal of getting spotted by the police.
• Draw attention by gradually drifting across the centerline.
• Tap your brakes to set the brake lights off repeatedly. If tapped lightly, this will only cause the brake lights to go on, not slow down the car—a good signal to the outside world that the carjacker likely won’t be able to notice.
• Leave a turn signal on.
• If it’s night, attempt to turn the headlights off.
• Run a stop sign or travel far below or above the speed limit.
• If pulled over, act as if you are under the influence. Use slow, slurred speech, or hand the officer the wrong ID, such as a credit card instead of your license. Do whatever you can to get yourself out of the vehicle. Your goal is to communicate to the officer that you are in a dire situation. If you are acting intoxicated, the officer will usually ask you
to leave the car, at which time you can divulge the true seriousness of your situation. Get off the X any way you can!
Carjacked as a passenger
If you are a passenger in the abducted vehicle and the carjacker is driving, look for an opportunity to escape. Ideas include:
• If you know how to disengage the door lock from your seat, look for an opportunity when the car slows and is away from oncoming traffic to leap from the car.
• Get sick, act as if convulsing, and, if possible, vomit; the idea is to make yourself a hindrance to a quick escape. If your abductor thinks you are about to die right there in the car, it may help you. Some criminals don’t want to get charged with manslaughter in addition to grand theft auto.
• Pull the emergency brake.
• Reach over and throw the car into reverse, which will stall the vehicle and distract your assailant.
If confined to the trunk of the vehicle
• Disconnect the rear brake-light wiring (in an attempt to have the car pulled over).
• Use the trunk escape or release key, which is on the interior of the trunk in many new cars and glows in the dark.
• Attempt to open the trunk using tire jack hardware by inserting it between the trunk and body of the car and using a prying motion. You may also be able to use the jack on the trunk the same way you would to lift a car and pop the trunk open.
• Try to sneak into the backseat by forcing the seat back to fold down (forward). If the backseat has a fold-down armrest, there is generally only a thin layer of fabric separating the seat from the trunk.
In 1995, a woman by the name of Janette Fennell was locked in her trunk by robbers. After surviving the ordeal, she led a campaign to have emergency releases installed inside car trunks. All cars built after 2001 are required to have them.
Know where it is on your car and how to use it.
PREPAREDNESS DRILL
Open up the trunk of your car. Look at the lock mechanism carefully until you are familiar with its particular design. If you were abducted, it would likely be your own vehicle in which you would be trapped. Is there a gap at the lock device? Is it screwed in or welded? Also, know where your jack is located so that if you had to find it in total darkness you could. Take time to note how the wall of the backseat or trunk barrier, the part that separates this area from the interior of your car, is constructed and figure out how you would dismantle it from the inside.