Terry Vaughan's Blog

Hi team. I came across an interesting story the other day that tentatively ties back into our topic of perceptual blindness. Actually, in this case, it has more to do with being deliberately distracted by someone so that a crime can be committed; and it came from an unexpected source – other women!

Read the following:   

“Last year I was holding an open house on my listing, and four women walked in and said they were sisters and looking for a home for their mother. Two of them walked out to the yard while I stayed with the others. 

 The two in the yard then called me outside because they had a few questions. When we walked back in, the gals stayed a little longer talking and asking more questions about the house. 

 It wasn’t until the next morning that I noticed my debit card and a few dollars missing. They managed to spend a few hundred dollars before I canceled the card. I found out later that these ladies had been making the rounds around Las Vegas doing the same to other agents while sitting on their open houses. 

 Needless to say, I now keep my wallet in the trunk of my car. It also helps to do open houses in twos, especially when the home is lived in and has things to steal. This economy is bringing out the worst in people.” 

— Linda Powers, Specialists Real Estate, Las Vegas

This speaks to a couple of things: There is always safety in numbers. When and where possible never be alone in a “private” setting where strangers can be added to the mix.

 Second: Although this woman was not physically harmed, desperate times push people to perform desperate measures, and women will commit crimes against other women. This is still pretty rare, as far as crimes go, but taking into account you are a woman alone in a “private” location your awareness levels should be raised to High Yellow to begin with (part of the mental alert level color code system beginning at white, low yellow, high yellow, orange, red).

If I had of been alone in this setting and four men showed up with the same story, I would have used my cell phone to take their group picture, and held photo ID from all four while they browsed (and possibly taken pictures of licenses, too, if I’d picked up weird vibes). I wouldn’t necessarily have been asking for these things to be a pain in their ass. I would be doing it to observe their reactions to my request.

 I want to know now, on my terms, whether these people are on the up-and-up.

These types of request form a barometer to their true intentions; multiple excuses, defensive tones and blatant refusals would all indicate somethings amiss.

Emailing the pictures immediately to your own office email means if the phone/camera is stolen during the commission of a crime, your evidence is still secure. Their failure to comply with these “Company Policies” would result in being barred from “viewing” the property. Better to be cautious and alive than take a chance….

One thing I would be very inclined to do, especially as a female realtor holding an open house alone, is call and notify the Law Enforcement precinct in the jurisdiction where the home is located to inform them you are a lone female holding an open house during so-and-so hours, and would they mind sending a cruiser around this area during the course of the day.  They might not have the man power to do it at all, or they may only do it once or twice, but if they could arrange the drive by close to the end of the showing, the most likely time to be targeted for a crime, it would help lessen the chances. Police Officers would much rather help avert a crime than investigate one after the fact.

Especially if it means helping keep a woman safe.

At the very least it puts your Open House address on their radar and if someone gets a few minutes to cruise past it might just be the moment when the bad guys, or girls, are casing the joint waiting for it to be quiet enough to get away with their dastardly deeds…

….

Living in the Yellow Empowerment Rallies for Women National Tour launches soon!

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Cheers,  T.

You might not sell much real estate, but you will be safer...LOL.

Hi gang. I was out running errands today and like most of the people around me, I was multitasking in the extreme (at least for me). First, there are the voices in my head, which most of you probably try to ignore, but I embrace. Then there was my requisite cell phone that brings the email, text & voicemail anchors with it, and then there’s just trying to remember the four things I was actually out to get done.

Still, I took a moment before exiting the store I’d been shopping in to bang out a quick text reply to a work question. This type of holding pattern before exiting is on my list of S.O.P.’s (standard operating procedure) when out in public.

Texts should not be answered while walking from crowded places to quiet ones for the simple fact that doing so draws all of your attention away from your surroundings - an activity that can get you hurt, robbed, or run over by inattentive mothers directing speeding mini-vans through parking lots…  it’s a long story for another day.

Coincidentally, upon completing my text, I left the store about five steps behind a woman performing the same task of answering a text or email on her phone, only she was continuing her journey to her car while doing it.  She exited the building, crossed the “pedestrians have the right of way” portion provided outside major department stores and did so on the blind faith that the cars would stop for her in a timely fashion: If either of the two vehicles that did stop for her hadn’t, she wouldn’t have been able to do a darn thing about it.  By the time she had of realized one of them hadn’t stopped, she’d have been hit. Oops - bad day!

As luck would have it she was parked in the same row of cars that I was, which was a good thirty parking places from the store doors. There are few, if any, surveilance cameras on this portion of the lot.

I actually cut my pace a little to be sure not to crowd her, as I wasn’t sure if she knew I was behind her or not.  As it turns out she no idea I was there at all, because she turned at the last second to drop her shopping bag off on the passenger side of her car and, in doing so, turned to face me not four steps behind her. She jumped about six feet in the air and believe me, I’m not that intimidating!

Or at least I don’t think so

Her fear made her do what most do in this situation - she froze for a second.  She didn’t immediately side step laterally to get off my “line of attack” (if I’d been attacking, that is).  She didn’t instantly seek to create more space between us while yelling “rape” to attract attention of a galant hero (which would have been someone else like me if she had of).  She didn’t swiftly move laterally whilst drawing her pepper spray/kubaton/taser/gun from her bag and assuming a strong attack stance and warn me to back off “or else”.  She froze – because that’s what really happens when you’ve been paying no attention and are caught by surprise.

If I had of been deleterious, she would have been in trouble. Big trouble.

Here’s the deal: even under the best of circumstances our brains are selective about what information it deems relevant at any given moment, during any given task.

For instance, if you are walking to your car while trying to remember where it is, writing a text/email with complete intelligible sentences, and thinking of something witty to entertain your friend/collegue/mother-in-law with, then your brain is pretty much maxed out.  Anything not central to those tasks will be filtered out as inconsequential to the immediate task at hand – texting and walking. This is called perceptual blindness and it can get you in major trouble.

The girl I’m referring to here jumped, froze, and didn’t do anything constructive with the adrenaline in her system until I had walked right past her two cars further along to my own truck. She did however manage to glare at me as I passed. I know she wasn’t really mad at me; that was just her “chemicals” speaking, I’m sure.

The point is, I doubt very much that there is a text in the world worth risking your life over… And if that isn’t the case, stop, or even return to the store to answer the message with your back to a wall so you can do whatever you need to to as safely as possible. Do not leave a public place and pass through the fringes of a quiet place inattentive to your surroundings.

 A predator will hunt the fringes of busy locations for exactly this type of person. It doesn’t matter if you have long hair, short hair, tight shorts or a short skirt - it’s what your body language says that will get you in trouble. When your eyes are down focusing on your crackberry you are giving off an incredibly attractive aura to one person and one person only, the predator. And girl will he love you for that.  That’s a high price to pay for answering your text from your girlfriend about what you’re going to be doing/wearing tonight at the local pub….

Living in the Yellow Empowerment Rallies for Women National Tour launches soon!

Follow me at www.twitter.com/tventerprises

Like at http://www.facebook.com/#!/tvempowers?ref=ts

Purchase tickets for Women’s Rally http://www.eventbrite.com/event/762797548

Cheers,  T.