On today’s episode of Dateline: True Crime Weekly, Andrea Canning talks to Lauren Fix, the "Car Coach", about what you can do to keep yourself safe from carjackings while you’re out driving.
You can listen to the full episode now, for free.
Plus, read a transcript of their exchange below:
Andrea Canning: Lauren, thank you so much for being here.
Lauren Fix: Hi, Andrea.
Canning: So, I would say just from watching the news, anecdotally, I feel like I keep seeing stories on carjackings, and some of them turn deadly.
Fix: Oh, absolutely. And it’s very scary. And it’s important for you to actually at least be aware of this because if the situation does occur --and I hope it never does to anybody -- that you -- you know what you should do and what you shouldn’t do.
Canning: So, for me, you know, first thing I do is lock my doors. Is that enough?
Fix: Not anymore. What you want to do is when you’re at a traffic light, give yourself space between you and the vehicle in front of you. You need enough space to be able to drive away. Because what’ll happen is, if someone bumps you from behind — which is how they sometimes do it at a traffic light, your reaction will naturally be, “I’m going to get out of the car and I’m going to exchange information.” Maybe not a great idea. You want to get off the road and into an area that’s lit where there’s a lot of people. So that may mean a gas station. You can call 911 and say, “I’m not getting out of this car till a police officer comes.” And typically, if they’re honest people, they’ll go, “Fine, I’ll sit in my car and I’ll wait.” Um, but just, it’s a -- it’s a beware thing. So you always need to be thinking in your head: Escape route.
Canning: What are some other carjacking scenarios you’ve seen recently?
Fix: We’ve seen people at gas stations filling up with fuel, uh, they leave their car, you know, with a key in the car, or their wallet on the passenger seat, and someone will say, “Hey, can you help me, you know, pump my car? I can’t figure out how to get -- get this to work.” And then someone steals your vehicle.
Canning: And, if you have your purse on the front seat, and you’re -- you’re pumping your gas — so easy for someone to come along. You might not even know what happened. They could just open the door, grab your purse.
Fix: And that happens a lot. When I get out of the car -- and this is what I personally do -- I get out of the car, I grab the credit card I need to pay, and I lock the door, and I take the key with me.
Canning: Yeah. And so, if you are now face-to-face with the carjacker, what -- what do you do? What do you say? Do you run? You know, most people have never been in that situation.
Fix: The first thing you want to do is get away from the situation. Get out of the car and run. Let them have the car. You can take your phone with you, you can call the police, you can call your insurance agent, that’s why you have insurance. And that will take everything that you need as far as, like, replacing the car. Yes, it’s inconvenient. Yes, it’s frustrating. But your life is what’s most important.
Canning: OK, so slight change in topic here, but since we have you, there was another risky scenario for drivers that we wanted to ask about. And this came up because -- spoiler alert -- it’s in this week’s Dateline episode. So, what is the best thing to do if you come across a high-speed car chase?
Fix: Right. Obviously you don’t want to be a part of that. If you’re watching your mirrors like you’re supposed to be doing and not watching your phone and everything else, and you see something coming up from behind you like, “Oh, that doesn’t look good,” you need to get as far as you can out of the way. That may mean taking an off ramp if you’re on a highway or, uh, all the way over on the shoulder, pulling into someone’s driveway, whatever it might be, to get away from that. The police are trying to stop a criminal, and you don’t want to be a part of that or slow them down.
Canning: Lauren, thank you for all these good new tips and also good reminders of what we need to do when we’re in our cars. We so much appreciate you coming on.
Fix: Be safe out there.
