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I was robbed at gunpoint at a hotel once and in the aftermath have my own tactical "lessons learned" on the topic of hotel safety tips... which I am happy to sh

by gregw2 4y ago

I was robbed at gunpoint at a hotel once and in the aftermath have my own tactical "lessons learned" on the topic of hotel safety tips... which I am happy to share with you fellow HN travelers: * Don't check into (cheap) hotels at 2am, criminals prowl at night looking for easy targets. * If you do, be on extra alert for idling or lurking cars with headlights on at hotels in early morning hours, it is indeed a greater threat indicator than in daylight hours * Minimize your movement outside your room when it's dark. It's not necessarily a boost in your security profile to go back out to your car to bring in your forgotten laptop from the trunk back into your room * If someone does have you at gunpoint and wants your money, do what your mother said and just give it to them, you can always make more money later. No regrets. * When a criminal takes your wallet, appeal to a shared fear of cops by asking for your driver's license back, you may still lose your cash but get your ID and credit cards back if they don't have a clear plan/motive to fence them... huge hassle savings (hat tip to the divine inspiration that brought this to my lips in that moment, it worked) * If you do lose all your credit/debit cards (+cell phone), one benefit of reporting your situation to the cops immediately is that when they come and take your statement and open a case (however unlikely it will be solved), they may give you a card documenting and showing your case #. That card can come in as handy evidence backing up your "sob story" in conversations the next day with strangers you meet if you now find yourself in a strange city with no resources and no friends looking to get a free meal or other assistance (while promising to pay the stranger back of course). Conversely, a stranger telling you a sob story of them being robbed can be asked to produce such evidence.

gregw2 4y ago
Not a safety tip, but also (to me) one more interesting lesson from the experience (which happened in my early 20s): * Trauma is a real thing. Your body can react to deadly threats afterwards in ways you cannot control. The next day after being held up, I literally could not enter a new room without my head moving/turning to scan entrances/exits for threats. I tried to stop my head moving repeatedly and could not! I literally could not control my body. After a little while of experiencing this, I found myself asking myself "Well, do I need to embrace this new behavior as a needed lifestyle adjustment? Or do I work to go back to my old ways?". I chose to work to go back to my old ways as this was a bit of a one-off situation (and in hindsight it was), but it took about a week of continual effort to regain control of my mind+body behaviors. I can easily see someone in different circumstances facing different tradeoffs remaining traumatized.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  I mean, you literally got robbed, but in my experience you can get a trauma response / anxiety from even smaller things. My friend had a kind-of-bully (we were 18+ at the time iirc) and met him in the street at new year's, the bully was a bit drunk and headbutted my friend. Nothing happened to me personally, it was just a bump on the head and the guy scampered when my friend's dad and friends came over, but I couldn't stop thinking about it to date (nearly twenty years later), imagining all kinds of alternative scenarios and all that. People underestimate serious confrontations.
Scoundreller 4y ago
> they may give you a card documenting and showing your case # It’s always a good idea to ask for the incident number whenever you go to police for something or for any BS interaction with them. Make sure there’s a paper trail when you’ll need it.

by gregw2 4y ago

gregw2 4y ago

Not a safety tip, but also (to me) one more interesting lesson from the experience (which happened in my early 20s): * Trauma is a real thing. Your body can react to deadly threats afterwards in ways you cannot control. The next day after being held up, I literally could not enter a new room without my head moving/turning to scan entrances/exits for threats. I tried to stop my head moving repeatedly and could not! I literally could not control my body. After a little while of experiencing this, I found myself asking myself "Well, do I need to embrace this new behavior as a needed lifestyle adjustment? Or do I work to go back to my old ways?". I chose to work to go back to my old ways as this was a bit of a one-off situation (and in hindsight it was), but it took about a week of continual effort to regain control of my mind+body behaviors. I can easily see someone in different circumstances facing different tradeoffs remaining traumatized.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
I mean, you literally got robbed, but in my experience you can get a trauma response / anxiety from even smaller things. My friend had a kind-of-bully (we were 18+ at the time iirc) and met him in the street at new year's, the bully was a bit drunk and headbutted my friend. Nothing happened to me personally, it was just a bump on the head and the guy scampered when my friend's dad and friends came over, but I couldn't stop thinking about it to date (nearly twenty years later), imagining all kinds of alternative scenarios and all that. People underestimate serious confrontations.

Scoundreller 4y ago

> they may give you a card documenting and showing your case # It’s always a good idea to ask for the incident number whenever you go to police for something or for any BS interaction with them. Make sure there’s a paper trail when you’ll need it.