Proof training works...

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I wasn't going to post anything about this (although I did tell a few of you) on the forum, but I thought about it today, and I realized that there is an important lesson in here, so I decided to share it.

First, let me interject one thing here. For those that saw my post asking about the animal call I heard...someone I know confirmed it was a fisher cat. He said it sounds like the call he heard. Ever since I heard that sound (which turned my blood cold), I've been carrying my OC spray in my outside coat pocket with my hand on it...just in case the critter decided to pay me an up close and personal visit.

I was working the overnight shift at an apartment complex in Lowell (security). The site is an unarmed site (yes, that mean I can't carry officially on the job). There are 8 bldgs. in the complex and every hour I had to walk the property and check certain doors to ensure they were locked.

Last Sunday night at around midnight, I started out on my patrol. I was walking between two buildings where the light isn't the greatest. It isn't real dark, but it's not lit up like the bigger parking areas are. A car passed me and headed towards the back lot. I walked towards where the car turned the corner and checked the building that's next to that lot. I heard a car engine running, but a lot of people come and go at all hours of the night there, so that wasn't unusual.

I checked the back door and then the back building on the other side of the lot, then headed back up the way I had come down, between the two buildings where the light isn't that great. As I started up between the two, I heard a car coming up behind me. It suddenly hit me that the car did not have it's lights on, as there were no lights behind me. So, being dressed in dark navy, I jumped up on the left hand side of the road on the grass. I turned and looked as the car came up next to me. As the front of the car just passed me, the rear door on the drivers side opened and the car pulled closer to the left side of the road (the same side I'm on). I suddenly realized a number of things within the space of two nano seconds - 1, the car was in between the two doors to the building behind me, so it's not stopping at a door, and 2, the inside dome light did not come on in the car. I went from aware, to alert, to alarm in the span of 3 heart beats.

Here's where the training kicked in. I immediately pulled out the spray and held it in a 2 handed stance....without even thinking about it. I sprayed the back door. The door slammed shut and the car took off. I don't even want to think about what they were planning, so we'll let that one pass by, however, I DID NOT FREEZE. I don't know if they thought I had a gun or not, or if they saw it was spray, but it really doesn't matter. What does matter is that I've spent time visualizing what I would do in certain situations. Although this particular situation wasn't one of them, what I had gone over in my head, over and over again, worked. I reacted without having to think about it.

And, as an aside...be prepared. I had a major, and I mean MAJOR adreneline dump. I didn't handle it well. I barfed my guts up.

So, even if you can't always practice at the range, you can still visualize what you would do and practice in your mind. It works guys.
 
I am sure that I am speaking for all of us when I say that I am glad that you reacted as you did and probably stopped some criminal act. And doubly glad that you are okay.
 
A lesson to learn from... and Lynne? Like Frosty, I'm damn glad you reacted as you did.

As I've mentioned to you before... If I ever work security again, I won't be an unarmed "target". Never again.
 
Lynne,
Sounds like a close call, and you reacted instantly. I'm glad you are OK and I also believe you made the right decision in not working an unarmed site (especially Lowell) on the overnight again...

Adam
 
Thank you one and all. :D I'm glad I was okay too. But, like I said, it was a blessing in disguise....training and visualization works!!!! Not that I'd want to go through it again, however. [wink]
 
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