Carjacked
It happened so very fast. Suddenly, out of nowhere we had two guys with guns yelling at us to get out of the car. Through the front window we could see a guy with an AK47. As we looked out the driver’s side window we saw another guy with a glock. “Get out of the car! Get out of the car!”, they yelled and kept repeating.
Being in the passenger seat I immediately went for the door lock. Three times I tried to unlock it and it would not open. What in the world was going on? I knew I had to get out of the car before the driver got out and surrendered the keys, by leaving them on the seat, but I could not open my door.
It’s times like this when I am very glad I still work out. The window was open so I simply bailed out of the car headfirst. The driver than left the car as the car-jackers jumped in. But we were safe.
My instructor, who unbeknownst to me was on the ground holding the door shut, told me that I was the first student that ever bailed out a window during the car jacking part of the course. Being 67 years old, I felt pretty good about that.
Yes, it was all part of the course I just went through last week in Phoenix, AZ called THARS – Target Hardening and Resilience Seminars.
THARS is all about empowering the student with the right tools for the job. We were provided with unique tools needed to mitigate unique risks of traveling in some of the countries I train in. It was a course well worth taking. As we continue to work in Eastern Ethiopia, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Costa Rica I’m better prepared to keep myself and my team safe.