ATM

Always be careful when using an ATM. Use it in daylight during a time when people are normally in the area. Take a quick look around for anyone that looks suspicious. Be aware of where people are and what they are doing. Be aware of people who are looking around for other who may witness their crime. Be aware of people who are standing around but approach the machine after you have approached it. If people get too close, leave the machine.

Hide the keyboard when entering your PIN; people may be watching with binoculars from a distance. If anything is out of the ordinary about the machine, do not use it. One ploy is for the thief to put a sticky substance in the card slot so your card will not come back out. A note attached to the machine may say that if you card hangs up to reenter your PIN a few times. After a few tries, you will probably leave and contact the bank the next day. Meanwhile, the thief has watched you enter you your PIN. When you leave. he/she uses needle nose pliers to pull you card out of the slot. Then he/she goes to another ATM and uses the card and your PIN to clean out all your accounts.

Another ploy is for an out of order sigh to be hung on the machine with instructions to leave any deposits with the bank guard. A very clean-cut, polite, and courteous person wearing an official looking police type uniform will be standing next to the machine with an official looking drop box for you to drop you deposit into. As you will later discover, the "guard" was a thief and now has your money.

Mugger Choke Hold

You may feel you could repel a weaponless mugger, but if the muggers are professional you will have little resistance available to you and you will not see their faces. You will be walking on a sidewalk, maybe even with a friend or a group of friends. Suddenly a mugger will reach around your neck from behind with his/her forearm across your throat and will grab the cloth on your opposite shoulder with the same hand and quickly pull you backward.. The pressure on your throat will stop any outcry. You will be leaning backward off balance and unable to kick or throw the attacker. The attacker will be perpendicular to your body so you may be hit him or her with your elbow on the attacking side. You could use you other elbow to strike backward, so the attacker will grab that elbow with his/her other hand. An accomplice will reach around and quickly remove everything from your pockets and take your purse/briefcase. The attacker will then drop you on your butt. While he/she and the accomplice runs away. By the time you may look around, they will be gone. The entire procedure happens so quickly that your friends will turn and see you on the ground, think you have fallen, and rush to help you. They will probably not even be aware of what has happened.

If you are able to react quick enough, which will be doubtful, you should grab the attacking arm and pull down while quickly thrusting one leg backward into a deep front stance. If you do this quickly enough, you may regain enough balance to throw your attacker. More than likely, you will not know what happened to you until it is all over.

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