Car Jacking is becoming
much too common in the United States. We really have no
way to prepare for such a contingency. And too many
people wind up being killed after they are driven to a
remote location by a car jacker.
So what can you do to
increase your chances of survival in a situation as
this one? Simple, call the police! What many people don’t
know is that a cellular phone that is not activated can
still be used to call 911 emergency.
We are not experts on
the behavior of criminals but this is what we found to
be a common factor in most car jackings. You are told
to get out of your vehicle and then forced into the
trunk of your car. As we have just mentioned a
non-activated phone can still be used to call 911 for
emergency situations. Time is of the essence to the
criminal. They need to avoid witnesses to the crime.
With being under this pressure, they are not going to
take the time to search the trunk of your vehicle for
hidden cellular phones. And they are not going to
rummage in the trunk with you being out of their direct
line of site.
We would recommend that
you keep a spare cellular phone or even two hidden
somewhere in the trunk of your car. You would have to
pay close attention to the batteries on the phone in
making sure they are charged up every few days.
Cellular phone batteries will discharge their power
even when not in use.
Obtaining a good used
cellular phone is fairly easy and relatively
inexpensive for the purposes for which it would be
needed. We know of one young lady who had remained calm
enough in the situation to do exactly that. She
contacted the police and an APB was put out on her
vehicle. After nearly an hour and a half on the phone,
they finally found her and had been tracking the car
with triangulating the signals from the cellular phone.
A state trooper in the area spotted the vehicle and
gave chase. She was very lucky that she didn’t panic.
When you select a phone,
it doesn’t need to be pleasing to the eye. You can
get a basic Motorola phone which would cost around $50
without activation. We would however, recommend that
you use an extended Nickel Metal Hydride battery. They
are very durable and will not be affected as much as
other batteries by environmental conditions. You may
want to consider one of the newer brick phone still
available and put on an eight inch duck antenna. The
more power the phone will have the better the reception
it will have under the circumstances.
The other advantage to
this is that the phones are not activated. Even if the
criminal simply forced you out of the vehicle and
happened to run across the phones at a later time, they
cannot run up your cellular phone bill. The phones are
useless for anything more than emergency calls.
Before putting the
phones in the trunk of you car, you would want to make
sure you are very familiar with the button’s location
on the keypad. A good way to test yourself is by
placing a blindfold over your eyes and have an observer
tell you if you are pressing the correct buttons. Do
not power up the phone because you don’t want to
mistakenly call 911 while you are training yourself on
how to use the phone without visual aid. Take the
battery off the phone before you do this exercise.
For this purpose, we
would recommend an analog phone. Digital service still
has too many gaps in coverage areas. Your chances of
reaching an analog cellular tower are much higher
especially if you are on the fringe of a rural area. If
possible, you may even want to consider stashing a 3
watt bag phone in your trunk. These offer a much higher
power capacity and improve the cellular phone signal
strength.
Warning:
Non-subscribed
cellular phones are untraceable. 911 operators cannot
trace your location or offer a call back if you do not
have an active phone with a telephone number assigned.
