ACT in Self Defense

The possibility of another bombing taking place in the near future seems likely when you consider how easy it is to build a pressure cooker bomb as CFN reported yesterday, and a Newsday article indicates that while the bombs used in Boston may have been more sophisticated than originally reported, the components are all commercially available.

Officer Mike Montmorency and his bomb sniffing dog stand by at the start of the Salt Lake City Marathon. Due to the Boston bombing security was dramatically increased, and spectators were asked to leave backpacks at home
Credits: George Frey/Getty Images

You will no longer go to a race to compete or cheer on your friends or family without worrying that an unattended backpack lying nearby might contain a bomb.

Photos taken at the scene of the blast, and released by the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Boston, indicate that a pressure cooker packed with nails and ball bearings and hidden inside a backpack was used in the explosions. These low-tech explosive devices can be made from household items found in your local hardware store and instructions on how to build these deadly devices are available on the internet.

Security will be tight at future races, but how do you secure an entire course, especially at a marathon?

What can you do to help avert another bombing like the one in Boston?
Read more here.

The warm Easter weekend brought out crowds of shoppers to Chicago’s Mag Mile and a lot of teens looking for trouble.
Credits: KathyPryn via Creative Commons

It was a beautiful day to be shopping and sightseeing down on Chicago’s Mag Mile, but around 6 p.m. Saturday things started to turn ugly with reports of teens intentionally bumping into people and fighting amongst themselves near the intersection of Chicago and Michigan.

DNAinfo.com reported “We were there, we were on top of it, and we dispersed it immediately,” Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a news conference at the Calumet District police station Monday.

“I also want to be clear: There were no assaults, robberies or property damage that was reported” at the time of the 17 Mag Mile arrests, McCarthy said.

Community activist Andrew Holmes saw something different while shopping with his family. “You had a group of teens, close to maybe 500. They assaulted a Chicago police officer that was mounted on a horse and all of a sudden they assaulted a citizen walking the streets, just a normal citizen shopping and enjoying the weather,” said Holmes, according to CBSChicago.

What steps should you consider taking in case the police aren’t there in large numbers to quell the next mob action? Click here to read more.

Police have issued an alert for a man who beat up workers during retail robberies in the Lincoln Square nieghborhood in the last few days.
Credits: By David Wilson 1949 via Creative Commons

The employees of a pet store on Leland in the Lincoln Square area were still in shock yesterday over a violent robbery which took place there late last week, reported NBC Chicago.

The Soggy Paws’s SP2 pet supply store was the first of two robberies in the area in the last few days. The neighborhood’s second robbery occurred on Sunday afternoon, less than a mile south of SP2, at the clothing resale shop Second Journey Resale.

Chicago Area North police issued a community alert about the incidents. Both took place when just one employee was present, and in both cases, a man punched the store employees after taking money from their registers.

On March 21, a man entered a business in the 2300 block of West Leland Avenue around 4:15 p.m. and asked a clerk for help, then walked up to the counter and announced a robbery, police said.

Redeye Chicago reported that Emily Frank, an employee at SP2, in the 2300 block of West Leland Avenue, said a man last Thursday brought pet supplies up to the counter and the announced to her co-worker that he was being robbed.

“He was told to go to the back room. Then the guy roughed him up,” she said. “It was awful. Terrible. There was only $80 in the drawer.”

What lessons can we takeaway from these recent attacks? More here.

Undated photo shows suspected gunman James Seevakumaran from University of Central Floridae. He was found dead in a dorm room on March 18, 2013 from an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Credits: University of Central Florida

Arabo Babakhani thought his roommate at University of Central Florida was just a quiet loner until James Oliver Seevakumaran aimed a gun at him Monday in what was intended to be the beginning of a yet another school massacre, according to a report in today’s UCF’s Knightley News.

“I just thought he kept to himself a lot and, I don’t know, I just thought he was a quiet introverted person. The only time he made solid eye contact with me was when he was pointing the gun at me,”Babakhani said.

What would you have done at this point had you been in Babakhani’s shoes?

What actions did Babakhani take to save his life and possibly the lives of his fellow students? Click here to read more.

Suspects in the kidnapping and armed robbery of 69-year-old Franklin Square woman are from left: Chavell Anderson, Aaron D. Anderson and Dorian Yamini
Credits: Will County sheriff’s office

According to WGN bond has been set at $1 million for a man accused in the abduction and robbery of an elderly Frankfort Square woman.

The 69-year-old Frankfort Square woman had just pulled into the driveway of her home and was sitting in her car when a man approached her and pointed a handgun at her and ordered her to accompany him.

The kidnapping and robbery occurred around 10 p.m. Monday. The kidnapper took the elderly woman to a car parked two driveways away, in the 8200 block of Chestnut Court where two other men were waiting in the car, according to Will County sheriff’s police spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer.

They drove several miles to a nearby Bank of America branch, forcing the terrified woman to give up her ATM pin code. Will County Sheriff’s police have not said how much money the men withdrew from the ATM.

They spent an hour driving around and trying to use the victim’s ATM card before letting her out near a gas station in Country Club Hills, police said.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Will County Deputy Police Chief Ken Kaupas characterized the victim as “a tough woman” from Chicago’s South Side, who “went with her gut instinct.” But Kaupas, acknowledging it is seldom a good idea to get into a car at gunpoint, said the woman’s approach “may not work for everybody.”

What might you advise an elderly family member to do in this situation? To learn more click here.

James Romaine, 22, and a 16-year-old boy were charged with sexually assaulting a Park Forest homeowner after she walkied in on the two burglars
Credits: Chicago Police Department

She arrived home around 10:30 to find two strangers in her home. The Sun-Times reported late yesterday that the burglars, one armed with a gun, beat and sexually assaulted the woman then forced her into her vehicle.

They then drove her vehicle around and eventually released her about two blocks from her home, police said.

Early Friday, police found and arrested James A. Romaine, 22, of Park Forest, and a 16-year-old. Both were charged Sunday with one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault and home invasion, police said.

The Chicago Tribune reports that they are expected to appear for bond hearings Monday, according to a release from Park Forest police. The teen was expected to have his case transferred from juvenile court and charged as an adult.

Home robberies happen everyday in safe and not so safe neighborhoods, but it isn’t very often that the owner comes home and encounters the thieves. When it does occur the results can be fatal, as in the case of Kelli O’Laughlin. She died from multiple stab wounds inflicted by the burglar.

What would you do if you came home and found your door open, or signs of the lock being forced? Read more here.

Ford City Mall in Chicago was the scene of a teen mob melee this past weekend in which two were injured.
Credits: One Homo Sapiens via Creative Commons

The Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday that disruptive behavior by a large group of teens at the Ford City Mall overwhelmed mall security and the Chicago Police. The reporter wanted to know, “where were the moms when the teen melee shut the mall?”

As it turns out there were quite a few moms and dads there with their young daughters for a promotional appearance by the popular boy band Mindless Behavior.

The Sun-Times reported that the band had recently concluded the event, aimed at a primarily tween girl fan-base, when about 45 minutes later a “group of youths” entered the mall intent on creating “chaos and havoc,” Mall general manager John Sarama insisted that the disturbance was not related to the band’s appearance, which ended about 4 p.m.

“The people who came out for it were mothers and fathers and girls . . .” Sarama said. “It was a very positive event.”

“You saw parents grabbing their babies, and run into stores — one woman had two babies,” said Manny Torres, a salesman at the mall. “It was crazy.”

What can you do to protect you and your family in this situation? Click here to read more.

Chicago police released this surveilance photo of Subway Restaurant robbery suspect
Credits: Chicago Police Department

If you were looking for a reason to stop eating fast food then yesterday’s report by ABC News Chicago of an armed robbery at a Subway restaurant on the corner of Washington and Garland, maybe just what the doctor ordered.

It was the latest in a rash of at least 12 robberies of fast food restaurants that have taken place in the last few weeks on Chicago’s North Side. Police say they think the suspect used a handgun to steal $400 from the restaurant’s cash register and fled the scene before police arrived. No one was injured in the robbery.

A police press release said that the holdups took place between Jan. 18th and Feb. 10th. The robberies happened at restaurants, convenience stores and drug stores spanning a large section of city, from the 1300 block of South Halsted Street to the 3600 block of North Western Avenue.

Small businesses have been the prime target of armed robbers recently.

What can you do to avoid becoming a victim in a fast food robbery? Continue reading here.

All of the new CTA rail cars are equiped surveillance cameras, but will all they really reduce thefts?
Credits: vxla via creative commons

NBC Chicago reported Monday that more cameras are planned for the Chicago Transit Authority in an effort to fight the increased number of thefts on its buses and trains, but will the planned increase in the number of surveillance cameras really be able to stem the increase in thefts on the CTA?

The CTA just completed the installation of 1,700 cameras, bringing the total system wide to over 3,000 cameras. All 144 rail stations are now equipped with cameras.

According to CTA President Forest Claypool crimes photographed on the CTA’s new 5000 series rail cars have helped police arrest at least 14 suspects in connection with 15 cases over a recent eight-month period.

Don’t lower your guard and start popping the champagne corks just yet. Crime on the CTA has increased.

Tips to help you avoid becoming the next CTA robbery victim.

Cook County prosecutors charged Loyola University freshman Colin Kennedy with raping two female students in their dormitory rooms on consecutive nights. Credits: Chicago Police Department

The two women thought he was a friend they could trust. They let him sleep in their rooms after he told them he could not get into his own dorm room, according to the Chicago Tribune; he repaid their trust by sexually assaulting them.

On Tuesday Cook County prosecutors charged Loyola University freshman, Colin Kennedy, with raping two female students in their dormitory rooms on consecutive nights. Judge Donald Panarese Jr. set bond at $300,000 for Kennedy on two counts of criminal sexual assault.

Most young woman think of rape coming at the hands of a stranger, but such is not the case. Read more here.