"Keep aware of your surroundings. Keep cell phone in hand. Practice on your husband kicking them in vulnerable parts......or maybe not."

I guess the moral of this is "Never mess with a lady from Ohio!"

Dont Be An Easy Target
 

If you are going to rely on a pepper spray, get a military or police grade one. When you point it at someone, don't aim for their head...aim for the chest and they will instinctively duck into it and you will then hit them in the face. Hint: Be sure they are downwind from you or you will get it, too.

When walking to your car, if you have your purse on your shoulder, walk as close as possible to the car line on the side where your purse is with your purse swung in front of your body, not dangling loose. That makes it much harder for them to drive by and grab. If confronted, throw it as far away from you as you can and throw your keys in the opposite direction or hit the panic button on your remote, if you have one.

Don't put your purse in the front of your vehicle, leave in the top of the basket, or let it dangle from your shoulder while you unload groceries, etc. Put your purse and your keys in the back as near the front as possible and then unload in front of them. All the while, remain vigilant to what is going on around you.

When shopping, I put my purse in the bottom of the cart underneath the child carrier and strap it in. I then put my purchases by the purse, and even on top of it until I check out. It is the last thing at the checkout to come out of the basket. You don't need it until that point, anyway. I keep my grocery list on my phone and my phone in my pocket when I'm not using it; if you use a paper list, you still don't need your purse until you are ready to check out. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO I WALK AWAY FROM THE CART. Many times, if I am at Walmart and have to load my own stuff, I put my purse in the cart under my purchases to go out to my car (not on my shoulder), and unload it first putting it in the back nearest the back seat. I just leave it there until I get home when I am going to be coming straight home regardless of where I do my shopping.

Just a few simple suggestions, but keep in mind that these people are looking for the easy targets. Make it as hard as possible for them to target YOU.

YES I DO want to be part of your group! What a helpful post my friend, Dillywho.

I always wondered if...
 

it is smarter to park as close as you can to store and

if you should put shoulder strap of purse over your head...

Sure would like to know some of the details of this mugging...
Sure hope that she is recovering mentally and physically..

I do too. I feel so bad to read TraceyMoore RN the nurse, post that she had a head injury and a broken pelvis, she was visiting from another country.


AFTER WORKING HARD ALL OF HER LIFE to be able to come here and enjoy her senior time on this earth and some scum who doesn't want to work knocks her down and robs her.


I just want to stomp the livin' crap outa him.

Great post Dillywho, thanks.

If they could only catch this guy and I could be picked for jury duty. I have a dream.

woman mugged in TJMaxx parking lot
 

I was so upset when I read this in the paper today. I thank all of you on totv for all the great advice and I am taking some. Where can I buy mace around here? Thank you.

I'll tell you this. In my experience in prison environments, when mace is used, both the shooter of mace and the recipient are incapacitated. It is an aerosol available to every nose in the vicinity. Sticking to my guns.
K.

FYI parts of The Villages ARE in Lady Lake!!!

T.J. Maxx
620 US N Highway 441, Rolling Acres Plaza, The Villages
(352) 430-2341

The designation of The Villages or Lady Lake does not matter. Villagers do a lot of shopping there.

As to the posters who think that a gun is the answer, I would say "WRONG".

A purse snatcher would typically pick a person that he thinks is older and non-athletic. He would run at them from behind, hit them with enough force to knock them down, grab their purse and take off running to a nearby car driven by an accomplice.

The purse snatcher is not going to target a younger looking and athletic looking lady as a victim nor is he going to target a male (no purse). So, those people have little to worry about.

If the victim had a gun in their purse - it now belongs to the robber. If they had the gun on their body somewhere, after shaking cobwebs out of their head from being knocked down, the robber would be a hundred yards away and a pistol is not going to hit a target running a hundred yards away - and your life is not in danger anymore so Stand Your Ground is not a defense to shooting.

Best answer is to Be Aware of Your Surroundings. MACE or a gun is not a viable answer.

Maybe it's time to change a few laws. I'll leave it at that...

This sad news has bothered me all weekend. I wish there was something we could do for this poor lady, and I wish there was something I could do to this thug.

I can not imagine which law change would have changed the outcome of this crime other than “No Running in the Parking Lot”.