Careful when shopping

[Teresa]

The Latest Scam: Robbing Females Using the Bathrooms at Shopping
Malls.

      The way the scam works is, a man slips into the women's rest-room and
sneaks into a stall. He waits until there is only one woman in the rest-room
in a neighboring stall. The criminal then stands on the toilet and points a
hand gun into the next stall, demanding the woman's valuables. After
getting her  cash and jewelry, he demands that she remove all of her clothing and
kick them out of the stall. The thief tosses the clothing into a shopping
bag,  hangs an out of order sign on the rest-room door, and slips back into
the  mall. The out of order sign ensures no one will soon come to the
woman's  rescue. It usually takes an hour or two for the woman to work up the
nerve  to leave the rest- room in the nude, giving the criminal ample time to
make his get away. Th e woman is left naked and humiliated in a mall full
of strangers. The best defense, says police, is to never go into a
shopping mall rest-room alone, as only women who are by themselves are
targeted.
   
This has so far been a nearly perfect crime, as none of the perpetrators have been caught.

      Don't let this happen to you.  Please tell your wife and friends.


I don't know if this is true or not.. but it is a very real possiblity.. and we as women need to start becoming aware and to be able to be on the defensive end when we are out and about . This is the real world... And sometimes not a nice world. Chances are, nothing in your lifetime will happen to you in this area, and I hope it doesn't. But we must be mentally prepared if it does.

I'm afraid that he would be in for a bit of surprise if he tried that with me. As I was reaching into my purse for my "valuables, I would grab a hold of my Conceal / Carry "friend" and at least get in one shot. This would have to be done fast and without much reaction. ( sometimes you only have one chance) Bet he would run like his ass was on fire. .. IF he was lucky, he would still be able to see , unless part of his face was gone.
And if I didn't have a CC permit and was defenseless? Well I think I would stand and scream and take that split second of the startle effect and try to get out of the bathroom door.
Or............take out  my billfold , which has ALL of my identification /credit cards  etc  and give a quick sling of my purse over head towards him. Then I would run like hell with my billfold in hand.
The kicker is keeping your wits about you and getting the dang door open from the stall.
And the worst case scenario......................... Give him my stuff... and as soon as I heard the door shut.. to hell with being naked and frightening little kids and teenagers..    run out of there screaming for someone to try  to catch or stop  him..

I would like to say that I wouldn't surrender easily.. but you never know. Too many X&Y factors.. 

[archeobabe]

Here, Here.  But a woman is cautious enough a pair of 15 would look out of place in the women restroom.

[Jo McDonald]

This may classify me as "nosey"  --- but I always check under the stall doors and "view the shoes".  Now ---- as a lighter note to this statement, Our friends (two couples) were out of town, and were shopping, and of course the men went one way, and the ladies went the other, and after a while, the ladies decided they were going to the rest room, and one went ahead of the other, and the shoes that were visible under the first stall, were Her Husbands' !!  So she quickly turned around to her friend,and very quietly said "Do you recognize those shoes?"  and then both turned and walked out - and soon after so did he...and never knew that he had been discovered in the wrong restroom.  To this day, I don't think he knows this.

[Teresa]

Here is another tidbit. but not as violent.. but still It needs to be said.

Something everyone including men should know just in case your are carrying your wife or girlfriend's handbag.


 

 
  HANDBAGS...

Have you  ever noticed gals who sit their handbags on public toilet floors, then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table? Happens a lot!

It's not always the 'restaurant food' that causes stomach distress. Sometimes 'what you don't know will hurt you'!
Read on...

Mom got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.

It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know what's inside our handbags, do you have any idea what's on the outside? Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the floor of the car. Most women won't be caught without their handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where your handbag goes during the  day.

'I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a lot,' says one woman. 'On the floor of my car, and in toilets.'

'I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts and on the floor of the toilet,' says another woman 'and of course in my home which should be clean.'

We decided to find out if handbags harbor a lot of bacteria. We learned how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake, and then we set out to test the average woman's handbag.

Most women told us they didn't stop to think about what was on the bottom of their handbag. Most said at home  they usually set their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.

Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn't be surprised if their handbags were at least a little bit dirty.

It turns out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.

Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the handbags could make people very sick.

In one sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella, and that's not the worst of it. 'There is fecal contamination on the handbags' says Amy. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without,  with one exception.

The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. 'Some type of feces, or possibly vomit' says Amy.

So the moral of this story is that your handbag won't kill you, but it does have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat.

Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don't put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.

Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair of shoes.

'If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops, that's the same thing you're doing when you put your handbag on the countertops' -  Your handbag has gone where individuals before you have sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc!

Do you really want to bring that home with you?

The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a handbag will help. Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather handbags

[T. Sackett]

     This is in regards to the previous posting of being robbed in the restrooms:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/restroom.asp

[Teresa]

I knew that.. I already checked it out after I posted. But it didn't matter.. It is STILL a possibility and should be a heads up that things happen.

[Diane Amberg]

As far as dirty purses go, most of our grocery stores have alcohol wipes at the front door. They work on purse bottoms as well as hands and carts. Of course hand washing is best. As convienent as they are, I don't care for hand blow dryers because then I don't have a paper towel to use on the restroom door as I leave.

[Teresa]

If I have a sweatshirt on, I pull the sleeve down a bit and use that. 

[sixdogsmom]

We could all just stay home and email it! Sometimes we can just get TOOO paranoid!! Being careful is one thing, but I sure don't pull down my sleeve to open a door??? Hellooo??? They tell us now that we should be exposed to a certain amount of germs so we can build a healthy immune system. I don't picnic in the bathroom, nor do I linger, however I would never pull down my sleeve to exit.   

[Teresa]

It's just the end of it..( the cuff)  Better than grabbing the handle after my hands are washed .. to grabbing it after someone has wiped themselves and NOT washed.
No thank you.
Trust me, I get enough germs to stay healthy. I don't need to add to it. And I am far from paranoid.. but public bathrooms are just usually nasty.