Have a seat, turn off your phone, and get comfy because it is now story time. I am going to tell you a true story about my friend (Yes, I am writing this with her permission and her help to make sure I have my information correct.) Anna Alexandra, who didn’t lock her patio door roughly 20 years ago.
Anna is from Russia. She came to the United States in 2002 and got her citizenship in 2011. Anna was a very trusting person, lived in a gated community where she enjoyed her family, friends and work and never thought for a second that she could be a victim of a crime.
She worked at an upscale hair salon in Alpharetta, Georgia, and one of the first things she did when she got home was to take a shower to remove the day’s “work, aka hair.” One evening around 6 p.m., she had finished her after-work ritual and was heading to her bedroom to get some comfy clothes on when she noticed that all of her dresser drawers were open.
I asked her, “Were you scared?” She said she felt “perplexed, not scared.” You see, since she never thought “it could happen to me,” she could not comprehend that there was a person in her apartment while she was most vulnerable – naked in the shower.
She realized that someone had ransacked her apartment in the 45 minutes she was indisposed and then quickly got dressed. She then walked around her apartment to see if someone was still there. I asked her “What was your plan?” She said she had “no plan, no weapon and no clue what she would do if he was still there.”
She called her next-door neighbor first and he called 911. The police came, interviewed Anna and wrote up a report. Once the event was over and she was alone once again, only then did she realize how lucky she really was.
I would like for you to put yourself in her place 20 years ago. Think about how you saw the world back then. Would you have been confused as well? Would you have reacted similarly?
She and I talked about who she was then, who she is now and the decisions she would make in present time. You see, not a week after the break-in, she went to a local firearms range and started her journey into personal protection. She stated, “Back then, the focus was all about the gun, where today it’s all about using the correct amount of force at the proper distance, in the context on the situation.”
Here are a few bullet points with some of the pre-need decisions she wished she knew then:
The reason I am telling you this story is because I went to Anna’s salon this week and when I got to her studio, it was locked. I knocked and she yelled, “Come on in” (in her adorable Russian accent)! I yelled back, “I can’t! It’s locked!” I could hear her laughing as she headed my way and as she opened the door she said, “Better safe than sorry!” Lessons were learned 20 years ago and now she is a firearms instructor and a decision coach that is helping others.
She finished up with saying, “We ask our children to look both ways before they cross the street. That is a simple ‘ask’ to try to keep our kids safe. Don’t we owe it to ourselves to do an equally simple ‘ask’ and lock our doors at all times?”
Learn more about situational safety and lifestyle decisions at The Complete Combatant.
Shelley Hill wears a "bunch of hats." Her husband, Brian, named her the “Indispensable Organization Wizard” about 25 years ago and that has become her official title. Shelley is the CEO and instructor at The Complete Combatant. She is an HK Brand Ambassador, publishes regular articles in Women’s Outdoor News and Shooting Illustrated, teaches online classes, is an Active Self Protection Certified Instructor, an Instructor Graduate of Modern Samurai Project's Red Dot Instructor program, NRA Certified Instructor, Certified NRA Chief Range Safety Officer, Refuse to be a Victim Instructor and is a Certified OC (Pepper Spray) Instructor through Chuck Haggard's Agile Training & Consulting. She is the designer and mastermind behind Image Based Decisional Drills, Smart Choices , LockedIn Grip, The Complete Combatant's annual The Mingle for professional ladies in the "firearms/self defense" industry and The Quest for red dot shooters. She is also the President of a non-profit organization called Blue Line Ponies. This 501c3 focuses on providing a retirement range for our career service horses. Shelley is also a presenter at several national conferences is a public speaker and she actually loves people. View all posts by Shelley Hill
Excellent.