Doug.38PR wrote:Suppose you are driving across the state one night away from your home town on a back highway one evening. You notice a car behind is behaving suspiciously and seems to be following you. You discover that you have forgotten to pocket your cell phone.
Pull the old cell phone from my previous provider out of the glove box, slap it on the current one's charger, and call 911.
Failing that, I usually make an effort before getting into an area to have the local ham frequencies set up in my radio.
Failing both of those, bet heavily on my car having at least one advantage over theirs, even if it is just the driver being more willing to give up some paint, and use it.
You have to also consider why the are following you? Do they want your car/truck? Do they want to rob you? Do they want to hurt you for some reason? If you are female, do they want to rape you? A LEO once told me if you know you are being followed never go home! Then they will know where you live. I would get to a populated area and if the followers get out of the vehicle start bring attention to your self from the people around you, and get someone to call 911. If you know they want your car then get your pistol out of it before you go inside anywhere, cause it might not be there when you return with help. Of corse if you don’t know why they are following you the populated area one, I think, would be you best bet.
Now that I think about it. An Interstate highway is the only place I've ever seen a weigh station. Federal highways don't even have them. I can't think of a single one I've seen going up or down Highway 59 or 80.
So weigh stations are only for interstates, not back highways
Doug.38PR wrote:Now that I think about it. An Interstate highway is the only place I've ever seen a weigh station. Federal highways don't even have them. I can't think of a single one I've seen going up or down Highway 59 or 80.
So weigh stations are only for interstates, not back highways
There's one on US 59 between Texarkana and Atlanta.
There's also one on US 71/59 north of Texarkana, right after you cross into Arkansas, and there's a sometime/temporary weigh station on the same highway a few miles north of Ashdown.
Just two examples of non-interstate weigh stations within 30 miles of me.
“You notice a car behind is behaving suspiciously and seems to be following you.�
Since I’m driving across the state, I’m probably on a multilane interstate with a shoulder, so there’s plenty of asphalt to work with.
Ok, I suspect I’m being followed. I don’t read the car has done anything outwardly obvious or dangerous at this time. Under those conditions, make sure the doors are locked, windows up, and check the gas gauge. Then I’ll just keep driving towards my destination at the legal speed limit. If I do anything with the speed, it will be to slow down. If the limits say 65, slow down to 55 and give them a chance to pass. If they take it, great and I was probably paranoid. If they don’t take it, slow down to ~45 – 50 and turn the flashers on, maybe even move to the shoulder. If they don’t go around now in a reasonable time, it’s safe to assume I’ve been targeted for some reason. Leave the flashers on and go back up to the legal speed limit and just keep driving. The flashers may attrack the attention of the DPS.
As long as the vehicle is moving, I’m not really at that much risk of being hijacked or robbed. Those are hard things to do at any speed over 3 mph.
It’s also extremely hard to box in a vehicle with only one car, especially on the interstate with so much asphalt for the potential victim to use. Anytime you stop, you have all the directions of the compass to go, and they can only block one. A car is also one heck of a weapon against them if they get out of there's, a lot better then a handgun!
As for speeding away, I would only do that if shots were fired. You’re actually safer in a car going slower then faster. It’s more maneuverable, and easier to keep under control if the bad guys start playing bumper cars with you.
I would not take my weapon out of its holster. One, I want both hands on the wheel for control, and two, if the bad guys do decide to play bumper cars, I don’t want the weapon getting lose in the car and out of easy reach. It stays in the holster where I can get to it if needed.
You will eventually come on a weigh station or a speed trap. If not, then there’s bound to be a town somewhere with a police station. But be careful about getting off the interstate. All that road works to your advantage and against them.
The main thing is, be cool. This isn’t the movies and in most cases they will tire of the game or pick an easier target. Remember, they don’t know you forgot your cell phone. As soon as you played the slow down and flasher game, they know your on to them and will probably suspect you called the cops and are trying to play them along into an ambush down the road.
This discussion reminds me of an episode that occurred in the 1970s. A criminal raped and murdered several women, sometimes also murdering men traveling with women, on a lightly traveled stretch of I-57 south of Chicago. He got away with it for years.
I wish I could remember how he was caught, but I don't. What he would do was bump the car in front of him lightly. Then, when the victim pulled over, commit his crimes. His last crime was interrupted before he killed the victims.
The lesson from this story is to be very careful about an "accident," especially in conditions where it should not have occurred in the first place, like an open road. If your car still runs, you can take care of cosmetic damage later.
