Expert Advice to Handle Dangerous Situations
Oct. 20, 2005 — -- Every year in the United States more than 50,000 women are raped. More than 100,000 women are assaulted, and hundreds more are slain by strangers.
But women can take important steps to protect themselves, says safety expert and ABC News consultant Bob Stuber.
"When crime comes your way, it comes fast," said Stuber. "It strikes and if you're not ready for it, then you end up a victim."
Together with "Primetime Live," Stuber showed some female volunteers that their instincts weren't always correct and that there's almost always a way to get out of or avoid a dangerous situation -- if you know what you're doing.
"PrimeTime" volunteers had little idea what was coming -- they knew they were being filmed, but were not told what the story was about.
In Stuber's first scenario, volunteers Dana and Nicole each ride alone in an elevator with a stranger. Suddenly the man stops the elevator between floors, catching the women off guard.
"It's like a woman's worst nightmare to be in an elevator alone with what seems like a psychopath," Nicole said after the incident.
Stuber says both women make the same mistake, moving to the rear of the elevator and allowing the bad guy to get between them and the "safety zone" -- the elevator's button panel.
There, he says, you can light up all the buttons -- forcing the elevator to stop on every floor -- use the alarm, or you can try to knock the emergency phone off the hook so someone can at least hear you're in distress.
If an attack is unavoidable, Stuber says, get to the corner where an attacker has a limited ability to hit or grab you. Women can defend themselves with something as simple as a purse.
"You have a shield," he said. "One thing you can do is drop down, get lower, make yourself smaller and now, use your purse to protect."
Using the same techniques, a 12-year-old girl in Orlando, Fla. was able to fight off an attempted assault by a convicted sex offender in an elevator. By fighting back -- biting his hand and making it to the buttons -- she was able to trigger the alarm, open the door and get to safety.
In the second scenario, volunteers are told to wheel a shopping cart full of packages through an empty parking garage, pack them into a car and drive off. No one is told what to expect.
