ACT in Self Defense

Lucas Oil Stadium Super Bowl XLVI credit Michael Heiman/Getty Images

Super Bowl XLVI is this Sunday and the New York Giants and the New England Patriots will be doing battle once again. You may be looking forward to watching the game at home where it will be warm and safe? Yes, most accidents happen in the home, but they are usually your own doing, not caused by someone else.

Why is the game potentially hazardous to your personal safety?

Have you read the article written last year about the study published by the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health?

They conducted research published Tuesday indicating that fans do, indeed, have a powerful thirst. In a study that says it is the first to measure the blood alcohol content of fans leaving pro sporting events in the U.S., researchers found 8 percent of fans had a BAC above 0.08 — the legal limit to drive.

Why should I be worried, I don’t live in the Indianapolis? More here.

Michael Giffin suspect in Bucktown sexual assault credit Chicago Police Deptartment

It is late on a Saturday night and you are at a bar having drinks with someone who appears to be a nice guy. He is an assistant soccer coach and studying industrial design at UIC. You go to another bar with him have more drinks then share a cab ride home to your Bucktown apartment.

You arrive at your apartment and invite him in for another drink, but when you say it is time to call it a night he doesn’t listen. Instead the guy who was so charming one minute threatens to kill you and sexually assaults you.

You see an opportunity to escape and you take it. You run out the door of your apartment and start screaming for help. He charges after you, grabs you by the ankles, drags you back into your apartment, and chokes you unconscious.

A neighbor hears your scream and calls the cops, who arrive just in time to arrest your alleged assailant as he is leaving your apartment. You are taken to the hospital where you are treated.
Read more here.

36 Broadway Bus By Chicago Man

It is after midnight in Chicago, and you are tired after putting in a long day and night working. You get on the bus followed by a young man who sits down behind you.

He gets up to exit the bus, but says he made a mistake and that this isn’t his stop. He hovers over you just long enough to reach into your purse and grab your wallet, and then out the door he goes.

Now what do you do? Read more.

House fire by iowa_spirit_walker

Sometimes circumstances dictate that the only way for you to save your life is to jump out a window. This was the case last weekend when off-campus fires took the lives of two female Marist College students and a male friend and another fire injured seven Boston University students.

The two survivors of the fire that took the lives of the two Marist students were saved by their quick thinking and willingness to jump out of a 2nd story window to safety.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reported that one of the Marist male students who was sleeping upstairs awoke early Saturday morning at about 1:30 a.m., determined the doorknob of the bedroom door was hot. The student and the female who was in the room with him jumped out the second-floor window to safety.

Would you have been able to do what these students did? Read more here.

Drivers Beware by Scott Olson_Getty Images

Chicago and Suburbs had a little taste of winter last week when we were hit with 3 – 6 inches of snow, but today things are going to get serious.

The storm is already hitting the suburbs and will continue to grow in strength with wind gusts up to 35 miles per hour. That should make the rush hour commute an even more miserable experience than usual.

By the time the storm leaves town, most of the Chicago area will be covered with 4 to 8 inches of snow, says weather service meteorologist Jim Allsopp.

Hopefully most drivers will remember how slippery the roads were last week and slow down. Every year we spend months driving in the white stuff only to forget the lessons of the previous winter.

Click here to read more.

Armed Robbery by Tomsk70

What could a 6’2″ 250 pound MMA fighter from the suburbs of Chicago and a little 13-year old girl from the suburbs of Detroit have in common?

They both faced danger and came out of their potentially life threatening situations unscathed, but there is more to it than that.

A few weeks ago the MMA expert was sitting in his car on Chicago’s southwest side when a man approached asking for a light only to end up pulling a gun and attempted to rob him, and just a few days ago a 13-year old girl was home alone when two men invaded her home.

What technique did they both use to survive their encounters with their assailants? To read more click here.

Armed home Invasion by leasepics

If you are doing your holiday shopping on line this year then you probably think nothing of opening your door to someone claiming to have a package for you. After reading what happened to three families last Saturday you may want to be a bit more cautious.

Last Saturday was a busy day for armed robbers invading the homes of several victims by posing as delivery men or claiming they had car trouble.

According to one preliminary report, three men got their victims to open to door by pretending to be delivery men before handcuffing the four victims and taking money and jewelry from a safe located in the house, said Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety.

Later that day police arrested 2 men and charged them with invading three homes Saturday on the North and Near West Sides.

Police claim Smith and Parker gained entry into a house in the 1100 block of West 13th Street just 30 minutes earlier, saying they had car trouble, the release said. Once inside, they allegedly struck two people in the head with a gun and robbed them of cash, electronics and telephones before fleeing in a blue vehicle with out-of-state license plates.

What can you do to avoid becoming a victim? Click here to read more.

Elderly Couple holding hands by garryknight

You’re getting up in years. Your hearing and eyesight aren’t what they use to be. Your health is starting to decline, and now you have one more thing to worry about. What might that be?

Police in Chicago’s south suburbs of DuPage County recently arrested a couple that targeted seniors for home break-ins.

Mark Stanko, 26, and Tracy Denell, 28, have been charged with home invasion, armed robbery and residential burglary in a home invasion in DuPage County near Willowbrook on Nov. 2, authorities said.

How did they know where to find them? To learn the answer click here.

Pepper spraying WTO in Seattle protesters 1999 by djbones

Have you been hit with pepper spray lately? If the answer is no, then you probably weren’t trying to buy an Xbox on Black Friday, participating in the occupy movement, or taking class at a N.Y. city high school.

A number of people have been on the receiving end of this self-defense tool. The most recent being last Tuesday in N.Y. when a young girl sprayed her fellow students indiscriminately with pepper spray.

How does it work? OC (oleoresin capsicum) is an inflammatory agent. Contact with mucous membranes like eyes, nose, throat and lungs cause instant capillary dilation. This results in major tearing of the eyes, if not temporary blindness, and breathing restriction.

Pepper spray is getting a bad name due to the extent it has been used in non-violent confrontations.

If citizens continue the foolish use of this effective self-defense tool expect more states to limit its sale. Police and other law enforcement entities are not going to be affected, just average citizens who are only interested using it for self-defense.

To continue reading click here.

Black Friday Shoppers Beware by Chris Hondros_Getty Images

The busiest shopping day of the year is just a few days off. Over 150 million shoppers are expected to descend on the nations retailers this Friday.

Shoppers beware! Sprinkled among those millions of bargain hunters will be thousands of criminals picking up gifts at your expense.

The criminal element will consist of thieves, strong-arm robbers, pickpockets, and purse-snatchers who are watching and waiting for just the right moment to make their move.

10 things you can do to get your precious bargains safely home. Click here to see what they are.