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American Morning
Safety Tips with Sniper on the Loose
Aired October 18, 2002 - 09:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It has been a nightmare becoming all too real in the Washington D.C. area, being fired upon while in a wide open public place. It has happened nine times, 11 altogether, two wounded, nine dead. How do you protect yourself?
Let's go to Sacramento right now. Our safety expert Bob Stuber is back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING. We welcome you back with us, Bob. We'll wind you up and let you go. You're at a gas station right now. Your tips on people. And you know throughout the D.C. area, this is at the forefront of everyone's mind when they stop and get gas in their car.
Good morning, Bob.
BOB STUBER. FOUNDER, ESCAPE SCHOOL: Good morning.
It's a situation that exists right now where we have to change the way that we think. Any venue, any public venue right now, can become a potential crime scene, a potential shooting event.
One of the safest things people can do right now is think about things in a matter of minutes. Limit the time that you are exposed in the target zone. That means being outside of your car, standing around outside of work. So you have to start shaving minutes off.
Let's talk about a gas station, for instance. You pull up to get gas. Instead of standing out there pumping the gas, using your credit card to pay at the pump, put the nozzle in, use the hands-free mechanism. Go inside. Wait inside while the gas is going in. Pay inside. Come back out to your car. When you get there, you just take the nozzle out, you get in your car. You may have spent a total of a minute and a half exposed, where previously, you might have been out there for five or six minutes.
And the same thing goes for other errands you have to run. Park as close to the front of the building you are going to go in. Let's talk about a grocery store, for instance, where go in there and get away, in this situation, with a couple of bags of groceries, where you can go back out to your car, put the groceries in, get in and drive away instead of eight, or nine or 10 bags of groceries where you're spending time in the target zone.
The whole thing coming down to this, during the course of a day, you can shave a minute off here and a minute off there, and by the time you're done, you've spent less time exposed, as you go about your normal errands. This is what is so important is that right now, anything can be a potential shooting type of a situation. So you have to pick these minutes up, and every minute you save is a minute tipped in your favor.
But I also want to say something about if you're in a shooting event, if something happens while you're outside, say, at a gas station or a grocery store, somewhere else, one of the best positions of cover is going to be next to an automobile. A lot of times, people are standing by cars when this happens. What you want to do is duck down at the front of the car. Not the middle of the car, or the back of the car, in the front , where the engine block is. Duck down beside the tire. If you have a hat or something on your head, take it off. Stay down below. Resist the urge to look around, because you can catch this guy's attention. When it's all safe, then you can pop your head up. But it's a matter of being patient enough to stay out of sight until you know that it's safe.
And I know there has been a lot of information lately about being a good witness and paying attention to things going on. In this environment, you have to do it proactively. When you pull into the store or you pull into the gas station, you pull into a parking lot, look around. If you notice anything suspicious, make notes of it then. Because once the event starts to unfold, you probably won't have time.
ZAHN: Bob, go back to the gasoline nozzle there at the beginning. There are some nozzles that do not allow a person to lock the nozzle in place, allow the car to fill up, maybe you go inside for protection inside the car or the store. Is there a technique you can use that might be able to slide something in there?
STUBER: Yes, absolutely. What you can use is the gas cap itself. You can actually use a credit card for this. You put the gas cap in between the trigger and the handle, and that will hold the nozzle up. You can also do it with a credit card. The thing is that the gas nozzle is created in such a way that once it fills up, it will automatically kick off, so you are not going to spill gas all over the ground, and that way, you can still wait inside out of the target environment. That is what we're trying to get at, is staying out of that environment by shaving off a minute here or there. It could be the minute that saves your life.
ZAHN: That's right. What about the grocery store, dry cleaners, advice in that area?
STUBER: Yes, absolutely. First of all, you want to try to consolidate those trips. Maybe you can do that with a neighbor or a friend, if you're both going to the same place. But you want to park close to the entrance. You want to stay up front, if you can. And the deal is to be fast, to be very succinct with this stuff. Like I said, if you can get away with a couple of bags of groceries, where you don't have to wheel the cart out to the car right now and spend two or three minutes out exposed filling the car, you know, with the bags, put a couple of bags in there, get in your car and drive away. Anything you can do that will get you out of the environment faster.
ZAHN: Good stuff to know. Thank you, Bob. Bob Stuber out in Sacramento, California. Always interesting to get his tips and advice. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 18, 2002 - 09:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It has been a nightmare becoming all too real in the Washington D.C. area, being fired upon while in a wide open public place. It has happened nine times, 11 altogether, two wounded, nine dead. How do you protect yourself?
Let's go to Sacramento right now. Our safety expert Bob Stuber is back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING. We welcome you back with us, Bob. We'll wind you up and let you go. You're at a gas station right now. Your tips on people. And you know throughout the D.C. area, this is at the forefront of everyone's mind when they stop and get gas in their car.
Good morning, Bob.
BOB STUBER. FOUNDER, ESCAPE SCHOOL: Good morning.
It's a situation that exists right now where we have to change the way that we think. Any venue, any public venue right now, can become a potential crime scene, a potential shooting event.
One of the safest things people can do right now is think about things in a matter of minutes. Limit the time that you are exposed in the target zone. That means being outside of your car, standing around outside of work. So you have to start shaving minutes off.
Let's talk about a gas station, for instance. You pull up to get gas. Instead of standing out there pumping the gas, using your credit card to pay at the pump, put the nozzle in, use the hands-free mechanism. Go inside. Wait inside while the gas is going in. Pay inside. Come back out to your car. When you get there, you just take the nozzle out, you get in your car. You may have spent a total of a minute and a half exposed, where previously, you might have been out there for five or six minutes.
And the same thing goes for other errands you have to run. Park as close to the front of the building you are going to go in. Let's talk about a grocery store, for instance, where go in there and get away, in this situation, with a couple of bags of groceries, where you can go back out to your car, put the groceries in, get in and drive away instead of eight, or nine or 10 bags of groceries where you're spending time in the target zone.
The whole thing coming down to this, during the course of a day, you can shave a minute off here and a minute off there, and by the time you're done, you've spent less time exposed, as you go about your normal errands. This is what is so important is that right now, anything can be a potential shooting type of a situation. So you have to pick these minutes up, and every minute you save is a minute tipped in your favor.
But I also want to say something about if you're in a shooting event, if something happens while you're outside, say, at a gas station or a grocery store, somewhere else, one of the best positions of cover is going to be next to an automobile. A lot of times, people are standing by cars when this happens. What you want to do is duck down at the front of the car. Not the middle of the car, or the back of the car, in the front , where the engine block is. Duck down beside the tire. If you have a hat or something on your head, take it off. Stay down below. Resist the urge to look around, because you can catch this guy's attention. When it's all safe, then you can pop your head up. But it's a matter of being patient enough to stay out of sight until you know that it's safe.
And I know there has been a lot of information lately about being a good witness and paying attention to things going on. In this environment, you have to do it proactively. When you pull into the store or you pull into the gas station, you pull into a parking lot, look around. If you notice anything suspicious, make notes of it then. Because once the event starts to unfold, you probably won't have time.
ZAHN: Bob, go back to the gasoline nozzle there at the beginning. There are some nozzles that do not allow a person to lock the nozzle in place, allow the car to fill up, maybe you go inside for protection inside the car or the store. Is there a technique you can use that might be able to slide something in there?
STUBER: Yes, absolutely. What you can use is the gas cap itself. You can actually use a credit card for this. You put the gas cap in between the trigger and the handle, and that will hold the nozzle up. You can also do it with a credit card. The thing is that the gas nozzle is created in such a way that once it fills up, it will automatically kick off, so you are not going to spill gas all over the ground, and that way, you can still wait inside out of the target environment. That is what we're trying to get at, is staying out of that environment by shaving off a minute here or there. It could be the minute that saves your life.
ZAHN: That's right. What about the grocery store, dry cleaners, advice in that area?
STUBER: Yes, absolutely. First of all, you want to try to consolidate those trips. Maybe you can do that with a neighbor or a friend, if you're both going to the same place. But you want to park close to the entrance. You want to stay up front, if you can. And the deal is to be fast, to be very succinct with this stuff. Like I said, if you can get away with a couple of bags of groceries, where you don't have to wheel the cart out to the car right now and spend two or three minutes out exposed filling the car, you know, with the bags, put a couple of bags in there, get in your car and drive away. Anything you can do that will get you out of the environment faster.
ZAHN: Good stuff to know. Thank you, Bob. Bob Stuber out in Sacramento, California. Always interesting to get his tips and advice. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
