From: KEVIN@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU (Kevin Whyte)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Bad tactical position ( was Psychology in Defense)
Date: 17 Nov 92 02:09:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: MSUS1.01GR8CF9OIQC000CUC

#From: viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson)
#
[ 7-11 Incident deleted]
#
I used to work at a 7-11 in Rapid City SD.  It was in the "bad" part of town
and though I was never held up I was on duty when a few petty thefts occured.
(BTW I worked the Graveyard shift) once I followed a beer thief out the front
door and watched as he handed one of the twelve packs to his buddy.  I went
back to the store.  I wasn't fired or even repremanded but then I didn't get
beat up with a hammer either.(Which in light of what happened to the clerk in
the previous post makes me very happy and a little like I may have dodged a
bullet.) I thought a lot about what happened that night.   When a couple of
weeks later it happened again with a different person I was able to foil the
theft.  I was able to "read" that something wasn't quite right with the person
when he entered the store.  I made a special attempt to greet him. ('Hello' and
a look in the eye also means 'I know your here and am watching you')  He went
to the beer cooler and picked up two 12 packs, one in each hand.  At this point
I moved out from behind the counter and began to sort the magazine rack(which
was next to the door) I also started talking to him as he approached
the counter.  I told him to set the beer on the counter and I would ring it up
for him.  He looked at me nervously and did it then said (suprise) "I left my
wallet in the car, I'll be right back."  never saw him again.  With me I
learned from the first experiance and was able to stop it when it happened
again.  I guess its sorta like the saying "fool me once, shame on you, fool me
twice, shame on me."  

[ Good description of cute criminal and car deleted]

Gee, I wonder why you were so observant?  :^)

#, but whether we're hunting or walking about, are
#there any exercises of a mental nature that we could do in order to
#notice the details more than normal?
#

In the military they used menomic of S.A.L.U.T.E.
Size, Activity, Location, Unit, T???, Equipment
(That's after 4 years out! I'm proud of myself!)
Any equivelent in Law enforcement?

I would say that the best way to notice more details is make an effort to
notice more details.:)  Ayoob talks about it a little in "Gravest Extreme"

#	I'm sure police and security types go through some sort of
#training in this identification and recall procedure.  Any of you
#care to clue us in?

7-11 had some training as well.  There were a couple of aids to allow us to
remember the incident.  First right after we called the police we were to fill
out a form that showed pictures of weapons and had the catagories to be filled
out for description of perp or perps. For help in the height cat on the inside
of every 7-11 door I've seen there is a height chart.  If you can you're
supposed to note their height on the way out.

As a follow-up note to the first beer incident.  I was eventually asked to look
at some pictures of suspects.  The person that most looked like the guy who
stole the beer was a native american with hair almost down to his ass,  the guy
I chased didn't have the long hair. This confused the hell out of me.  They
brought the guy in and he ended up pleading guilty.  He had tucked his hair
into his shirt and had worn a baseball cap during the robbery.

About a week or so ago someone mentioned the fact that a Glock was so ugly it
would probably frighten the perp away.  That triggered a memory of something I
had read in a book. I finally tracked it down and figured it would be relevent
in the "What is the perfect self-defense weapon anyway?" debate.

excerpt from "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" By Douglas Adams

"...a long silver Kill-O-Zap gun at them.  The designer of the gun had clearly
not been instructed to beat about the bush.  "Make it evil," he'd been told. 
"Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end.  Make it
totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly
for them.  If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened
bits all over it then so be it.  This is not a gun for hanging over the
fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and
making people miserable with."
Ford and Arthur looked at the gun unhappily."

Anyone know if you can mount an ice pick to a glock?  ;^)

#	Please, this is very borderline for the charter.  Let's keep
#it down to the relevant visual stuff.

and I have just made it a little less relevant I'm afraid.  However I believe
that this is of interest to the group.  (of course what I believe is irrelevant
if the moderator trashes this as is his right)

Kevin		kevin@msus1.msus.edu