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Tactical
Scenario: 11-2005
The Car Jacking Scenario
A
long day at work has ended. You travel
home on a two-lane winding country road. This is your usual way home. You’re probably traveled this particular
road over a 1000 times since taking the job.
It’s summer time, 9:30 PM and a full moon is shining and it’s a clear
night.
There
are only farms in this vicinity of your trip home. As you round a gentle curve,
you notice an old pickup truck crossways in the road about 200 yards ahead. The
truck completely blocks the road. As you scan the truck for clues, you notice a
man with what appears to be a rifle standing on the other side of the
truck. A second man is noted at the
rear of the truck. No weapon is seen. Both people are dressed in street
clothing. As you jam on the brakes, a
vehicle with no lights pulls out of a lane about 100 feet behind your
vehicle.
You
are legally permitted to carry a concealed weapon in this jurisdiction. You
have a SIG P-229 in 9mm in a Wilderness Safepacker on the passenger seat. A round is not chambered but a full 13 round
magazine is inserted. Fox OC spray is
in the glove box, a Spyderco Centofante III FRN folding knife is in your right
pants pocket and a Nokia 6620 cell phone is in your brief case. A Ruger Mini-14 is in the trunk along with
ammunition.
Explain
what action you would take and why.
The Car Jacking Response
Since I know this road, I
would use that to my advantage. I am looking at three options and all depend on
the road and my vehicle.
1) Accelerate past the
truck that is blocking my path. I don’t like this one because if the 1st
person does have a rifle, I will be presenting an excellent target as I drive
by.
2) Throw my car into
reverse and accelerate backward. It may have the effect of throwing the person
driving the car into swerving off the road and buying me some more reaction
time. This is my choice given the information at hand.
3) If the road is wide
enough, I would turn around and go back the way I came. This would be a better
choice than 2 because if this isn't an ambush, I wouldn't be breaking any laws
driving in reverse at another vehicle.
4) If the car blocks the
road like the truck, it’s time to go off road. If they are determined to follow
me into the farmers field, I am going to call the police and leave the phone
on, put my car into a position I can use it for cover, preferably next to
a piece of farm equipment so I can use that as for cover well. I would grab the
Safepacker, exit the car and get my rifle loaded and ready. From the scenario,
this seems the most likely course this trip will take.
The Car Jacking Response
Wow! That’s
a lot of personal protection equipment in the car and none of it attached to
your person. We’ll work under the presumption that where I’m employed is
a non-permissive environment? If that’s the case, I’d kit up when I got
in the car. The Safepacker would get attached to my belt, the O.C. would
be put in my left side pocket, and the phone would get placed in a pocket
somewhere on my person.
The most obvious solution to me would be to start backing up down the road,
regardless of the car that has pulled out behind you. Two men, one with a
rifle, manning a roadblock trumps an unknown vehicle with the occupants still
in the car. I’d attempt to pass the car behind me in the oncoming lane
and turn around in the lane that the car pulled out of, then drive away while
calling the police to inform them of an armed roadblock.
If the car behind me maneuvers to block my retreat this would tell me that
they’re working together and I’d pull a hard right or left and back off the
road. I’d get out, pop the trunk, get the rifle out, and high tail it
into the hills, so to speak (the possibility of the trunk getting smashed to
the point where it won’t open is real and I’d only give this a few seconds,
then give up and move out). Find someplace where I have some cover,
deploy the rifle, if I have it, and attempt to call the police to inform them
of an armed roadblock.
If there’s no place to back off the road (steep hills on either side), I’d keep
backing up and ram my way through the car behind me before they had a chance to
deploy against me. Once through the rear roadblock, I’d turn around at
the soonest opportunity (possibly the lane the car pulled out of in the first
place) a drive away smartly, while calling the police to inform them of an
armed roadblock.
A quick word about unsecured equipment in your vehicle. It’s not
particularly rational to have your primary defensive tools loose in the car. In
a crash, intentional or otherwise, loose material will not stay put (Miami
April 11, 1986 anyone?). The above mentioned SIG would go sailing if the
driver attempted to smash their way through a roadblock. If the car craps
out 20 yards beyond the roadblock, where’s your pistol? You have three
seconds to root around on the floorboards to find it then bring it into
action. Good luck, you’ll need it.