On Sunday, a carjacking prevention and situational awareness workshop for community members took place at Woody Buick GMC. RJM Strategy Group and DuPage Krav Maga teamed up to make the workshop possible.
The seminar was run by retired police officers Chuck May and Ray McGury. Both provided helpful tips on how to avoid carjacking.
“Situational Awareness”
“If people can just focus on situational awareness, and knowing what’s going on around them, the likelihood is, you know, I can’t guarantee it, but it’s a good chance that they’re not going to become a victim,” said McGury.
McGury said the most common way people get carjacked is when they are distracted by either the radio, their cellphone, or just simply not paying attention to their surroundings.
Real-Life Scenarios
After getting some tips, participants had the chance to practice by working through some real-life scenarios.
“It’s not worth your life. Give them what they want, give them what they want. Where it becomes dicey is when the offender says, you’re coming with me, move. And as you saw from some of the scenarios that raises the stakes a little bit, that’s a personal choice though. I can’t tell them in that situation, what they would do,” said McGury.
Though McGury said carjackings aren’t horribly common, tips learned through the seminar can help in a variety of scenarios. He said a key way to avoid danger is to switch up your mindset.
“If you think like a police officer, you’re not going to catch people. You got to think like a criminal, how would I get attacked?” said McGury. “How am I vulnerable? If you focus in on those things, you have a better chance of defeating carjacking and basically a lot of different crimes.”
Naperville News 17’s Anthony Yench reports.
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