He was in his car in the SoBro neighborhood, parked in his drive along the 5300 block of Carrollton. It happened during a time of day where you’ll typically see families with kids in strollers and on shoulders. People on bicycles. A mail carrier making his rounds.
Police said it was about 2:00 p.m. when that man, 34, was approached by two armed men. They got away with cash and a a cell phone.That's not far from where I'm typing this, not far at all. The approximate scene of the crime was within easy line of sight as I walked home from lunch yesterday. As a matter of fact, you can see the relatively busy thoroughfare of 54th street, a common walking route for me, in the background of some of that TV news footage.
I'm going to wager that dude was sitting in his car, futzing around with his cell phone like people do all the time, when all of a sudden and from out of nowhere...!
Sitting in parked cars is where people get jacked up. You're pinned in a box, and most people don't pay any attention to their surroundings while they'te in there.
Look around you before you pull into the parking space, and again before you shut off the car. When you shut off the car, exit the vehicle smartly, don't get lost in your glass cocoon.
What interested me in some of the discussion about this was the weird reluctance people have to locking their doors, like it's something you only do out of fear. Let me quote fellow blogger Unc on that one:
My kids always, in an annoyed tone, ask: Why do you always lock the doors? And I respond with So I don’t have to shoot anyone.
