Realtor Fights Off Attacker In House - South Bend, IN
Posted on July 24, 2008
Filed Under Personal Safety, Personal Security, Personal protection devices, Protection Devices, Realtor Safety Awareness, Safety Plan of Action, Self-Defense Training, Videos, Women's Self-Defense
This past weekend there was an incident where a realtor (female) was attacked by her prospect. As I have written about on many occasions - it doesn’t matter that you live in a small community like South Bend, Indiana where crime may not be as prevalent as in the larger cities - but crime still happens! And these criminals are looking for the avenue of least resistance. Realtors are considered a high risk profession and they need to do everything they can to ensure that their personal safety is one of their highest priorities.
That means ensuring you have a Safety Plan that includes taking self-defense training to learn simple, yet effective defensive techniques and tactics that will enable you to protect and defend yourself against an attacker. Also, take a personal safety awareness class that reviews and reiterates many realtor safety guidelines that are designed to promote everyday awareness to keep you safe.
Sometimes taking a safety awareness class gives you an "aahha" moment that makes you realize you haven’t been following the safety guidelines like you used to. When we get extremely busy it is easy to become complacent - especially about our safety - and when everything is going fine - no criminal incidents against your profession in your community - life is good! But that is when we tend to let our guard down. We may not be as sharp to recognize potentially dangerous situations as we normally would be. If your inner gut feeling is telling you something isn’t right, always listen and get out of the situation.
Do you carry any type of personal protection? I talk about carrying devices like pepper spray, mace pepper gun, stun guns, C2 Taser, or a personal alarm. These are all non-lethal devices that can be used as a secondary option to disable an attacker - throwing him off-guard enough for you to get away to safety.
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE ARTICLE, 7-21-08
Realtor fights off attacker in Ironwood Drive house
Police urge agents not to show properties alone for now.
By JEFF PARROTT
Tribune Staff Writer
SOUTH BEND — It has all the potential for a dangerous situation, yet it happens every day in neighborhoods everywhere.
A female real estate agent, alone and unarmed, agrees to meet a strange man in a vacant house.
On Friday, the potential was realized at a home on South Ironwood Drive.
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$10 towards any haircut or other hair service. Coupon expires 12/31/08 …The agent, who is not being identified to protect her privacy as the victim in the crime, told The Tribune she has thought about the possibility of being attacked or robbed while doing her job, and real estate agents are even trained to prevent it. But in this case, she thought she was safe.
The man had called her office the day before and left a name and call-back number. She had called that number and first spoke to a woman, who then handed the phone to the man, and they set up the appointment.
About 1:15 p.m. Friday, she arrived to find him waiting outside, and they proceeded inside, where she showed him around.
He had been asking routine questions, about the furnace, roof and appliances for example, and he was neatly dressed and spoke articulately.
But in the basement, about 15 minutes into the showing, he asked her to go to a rear section of the basement. She said she felt uneasy and made it clear with her body movements that she wasn’t going to go, she said.
He then said he wanted her money. She told him it was in her car. He ordered her to remove her clothes and said he was going to tie her up.
“He got hold of my wrist,” she said. “I got away. I tripped over a dehumidifier. He got hold of me again and then pulled out a knife.”
She said she grabbed the blade with her hand and bent it, and it left a “little mark” on her palm.
She freed her other wrist and started kicking at him wildly. He then got up off the floor, ran up the basement steps and out the door. She called 911 on her cell phone and stayed in the basement for a while, so she doesn’t know whether he walked or drove away, she said.
She described him as being black, in his 50s, standing 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-7 inches tall and of medium build. He was wearing a blue T-shirt with the words, “Niles Brandywine” on the front.
The agent said from now on, she will require prospective buyers to meet her at her office first. But that would not necessarily have prevented this attack, she noted.
“I’ll tell you, I had to really work to get away,” she said. “I was real lucky.”
South Bend police Lt. Don Miller said he worries that with the housing market in such poor shape, Realtors might not take enough precautions to ensure their safety.
“If there is a guard, maybe that guard is going to be down even a little bit more because they want that sale,” Miller said. “My advice for Realtors is if you could be accompanied by another agent for a while until this thing is solved, it would be a good idea.”
Miller said he knew of no other similar crimes recently. He asked anyone with information that might help police to call Crime Stoppers at 288-STOP.
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7 Responses to “Realtor Fights Off Attacker In House - South Bend, IN”
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This woman was very, very lucky and did the correct thing by fighting this jerk off. We feel that all realtors should at the least carry pepper spray!
Mike - Women should arm themselves with self-defense/awareness training and personal protection devices - yes pepper spray is an excellent choice. Sometimes the element of surprise can stun the attacker. But I definately like the Tasers too!!
Cheryl
Wow, thanks for a great article. This is really helpful.
[…] Safety Tips seem like common sense tips that we should all know, yet we read about realtors being assaulted in a basement, attacked while working alone at an Open House, or failing to have a new prospect meet at the […]
Hi there I like your post “Fights Off Attacker In House - South Bend, IN | Self-Defense With An Attitude” so well that I like to ask you whether I should translate into German and linking back. Answer welcome. Greetings Schlauchboot
Thanks for commenting. Yes you can translate and link back. Hopefully women (and men) in Germany can learn self-defense and safety awareness tips that will help them avoid becoming a victim of crime. Knowing what to do and how to protect and defend yourself against a perpetrator is a fundamental key to your safety…and life!!
Cheryl
[…] of the Safety Tips seem like common sense tips that we should all know, yet we read about realtors being assaulted in a basement, attacked while working alone at an Open House, or failing to have a new prospect meet at the […]