Parking Lots Can Be Dangerous Places For Assaults

In our recent article called ‘The 5 Most Common Places For Attacks On Women’, we point out that parking lot assaults may seem counterintuitive at first, but it makes sense when you think about it. When women go shopping at the mall or grocery store, they leave their cars in parking lots. When they return to their car, they can often be distracted by talking to a friend, talking on a cell phone, watching the kids or any other number of distractions.”

In today’s article, we will give you several examples of parking lot assaults and finish up by giving you some parking lot safety tips.

In our first example from Richmond, Virginia where a Man Was Assaulted In An Apartment Parking Lot. The parking lot was poorly lit so the victim did not see the perpetrators approaching his car. They knocked on the car window and the victim opened the window- not a good idea. That’s when they pulled him from his car and started punching and kicking the victim. They took his wallet and phone and left the victim with life-threatening injuries. The police have posted the perpetrators’ pictures on their Facebook page.

In our second example, a man was arrested after reports of an HEB Disturbance. Police discovered that he had an outstanding warrant for a similar crime.

In our third example at Tennessee Tech, Poor Lighting is being blamed for two recent parking lot assaults on female students.

There are no statistics on this fact, but women are the victims of assaults in parking lots in the great preponderance of cases. By default, women are the victims of assaults in nine out of 10 cases, but it seems they are especially vulnerable in parking lots. There are several reasons for this mostly related to a shopping experience.

Women are easily distracted by talking on their cell phones, talking with their friends or just minding their children when they exit a store. Couple that with the fact that many parking lots are poorly lit and offer a plethora of hiding places for the bad guys.

Here are some parking lot safety tips.

1. Do your shopping during daylight hours.
2. Park as close to your destination as you can and save your exercise for the gym.
3. Always be aware of your surroundings.
4. Look for potential hiding places for predators.
5. Always lock your car when you leave it.
6. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance out to your car especially at night.
7. As you are approaching your car, get your car keys out and be ready to make a quick entry into your car. Have a self-defense keychain pepper spray attached to your car keys so that in the event of an assault you are ready.
8. Avoid talking to strangers because it can be a ploy to distract you.
9. Try to join a group on the way to your car.
10. Once inside your car, immediately lock all your doors.
11. If you have children when you’re shopping, distractions are plentiful.
12. Predators count on those distractions to take your attention away from potential danger. So be aware and be safe.

Have you ever been assaulted in a parking lot? What happened?