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Hitchhiker (or carjacker) with a weapon . . .

3K views 38 replies 29 participants last post by  karlmc10 
#1 ·
I was driving home from college the other day and spotted a hitchhiker trying to get a ride in my direction. Not being an idiot, I drove past him.

But then I got to thinking, suppose for some reason I did pick up a hichhiker (which is a no-no, but lets assume that mistake was already made). Or perhaps someone hides in the backseat and you don't notice untill you're driving. That BG turns violent agressor while I'm driving, lets call it pulls a knife and demands cash, ect. . .

How would you react? I like doing "thinking drills":

So for the purpose of discussion, let's make the following assumptions.

You're confined inside a vehicle moving at 55 mph, with an armed agressor a foot away from you. You may or may not have a firearm handy, you may or may not have a knife handy.

Go . . .
 
#2 ·
PS: I have a thing with hypothetical worst case senarios, I play them in my mind all the time, I think it helps me with SA. "If someone burst in here with a gun I'm going to (insert action here) and then . . . ."
 
#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
This is my very first reaction, is he buckled in? How much of a threat does he pose.. (gun/knife)? Can they be won with brain/words or do I need to hit a telephone pole?
 
#4 ·
As I'm driving with both hands on the steering wheel, at a select opportune moment, in less time than it takes to blink, with my right hand bladed out straight, I'm going to strike him so hard and so fast right square in the Adams Apple, it will probably cut his head off!

Follow up immediately with a power brake and the moment the car stops or slows sufficiently I'm trapping his knife, disarming him and then I'm all over him like a monkey on a cupcake!

I guarantee that once his larynx is crushed and he can no longer take any air in or out, he won't be worried about trying to fight me. He'll be fighting for his last breath on earth. Which of course he already took prior to me killing him. That is if he is still conscious as he suffocates. That blow will probably be so devastating that he'll likely be unconscious as he suffocates to death. He may even be paralyzed from the broken neck.

Bear in mind, he'll think he's dealing with a sheep because I'm going to be crying and freaking out and I may even pee my pants for his sick pleasure. And when the moment is right... BAM! By the way, It won't take long before I act. Probably in the first minute or two while there's still chaos going on in his mind.

I don't pick up hitch hikers! So in reality this scenario won't be happening to me.
 
#9 ·
Darn, Bark'n,

I'm not bumming a ride home from work with you.:rofl:

To the OP...I don't pick up HH...never!
 
#5 ·
Naturally any of us defensive minded people would be unlikely to ever be in this situation because I'm sure we all

1. Don't pick up HHers
2. Check the back seat prior to getting in

But I hadn't thought of larynx strike, good call.


Ahh Rugger, your from Oak Harbor! My grandparents lived in Oak Harbor before they passed. I love that little town!
 
#10 ·
I never pick up hitch-hikers.
I always check in, around and under my vehicle before getting in.
I drive defensively, always leaving myself an "out" where ever possible. I'm an also not afraid to run into a car in front of me if I absolutely have no other alternative. If you do have to hit another vehicle you will draw attention, if you don't stop the person you hit is highly likely to call police as well.
Good SA will prevent a scenario like this in many cases.
 
#15 ·
I was gonna say. I'd let the guy know that I have no problem completely trashing my Silverado on his side and just hoping that by the grace of God that I somehow survived, but hoped he would suffer a fatal blow during the crash. Then I read Bark'ns post and His plan is better, and I wont need a new Truck. :yup: +1 B. :hand10:
 
#21 ·
IMO, you would be out of line if you DIDN'T sit either behind them, or beside them with both you and him in the backseat.

I don't pick up HH's any longer, but the last several I picked up, I frisked beside the highway first. I did full body patdowns for weapons, with their hands in the air. Had they not consented, they would not have gotten a ride with me.

I'm probably done picking up HH's, unless it's an extreme situation.
 
#20 ·
I won't pick up a HH'er but if I lost my senses and did, I would floor the gas pedal and start swerving all over the rode. I would be asking him/her if they would care to throw their weapon out the window in order for me to bring the vehicle under control again. When the weapon gets ditched it's lights out for the scumbag.
 
#33 ·
One of Heinlein's early short stories runs exactly like that.

I think it was actually titled "the deadliest weapon" or some such. It was about picking up a hitchhiker who tried to car jack him. He guns it up to max and threatens to run the thing strait into an overpass unless the carjacker throws the gun out the window. He ends up leaving the carjacker trapped in the median of a very busy highway and notifies the police of the carjackers whereabouts.

Edit: Well shoot, I just went to check the story title and I don't see it credited to Heinlein. Sorry about that. If anyone cares I will post the author and true title when I think of it...now it is going to bother me all day.
 
#22 ·
I saw the adam's apple strike in the series finale of Life. Charlie Crews asked the guy how he though he survived all those years in prison. Then wham right across the throat. Didn't take him long to die. That wouldn't be a good way to go if there ever was a good way that is.

As far as picking up HH it would be only if it was someone I knew.
 
#29 ·
I would have to think I would load one of my Sister's old Backstreet Boys CDs into the stereo and that attacker would egress immediately!

Really . . . I am always buckled up . . . if I do an emergency brake, my windshield does all the hard work so my hand wouldn't hurt as much as Barkn's would. :eek:uch:
 
#30 ·
pangloss9... Ok, good job, however, Ted Bundy only used a fake cast on his arm and never used a neck brace. But I'll give ya that one.

Ok, so guy has a neck brace on. Same as before, I have both hands on steering wheel, except this time instead of using a bladed hand, I use my fist which is as hard as a brick. As fast and as hard as speeding locomotive I hit him right square in the nose, smashing it instantly into tiny little fragments which will not only immediately water his eyes to the point he can't see, but also send such an excruciating electrical type pain that his brain is in immediate chaos and unable to formulate a defensive counter. He may also have blood gushing in the back of his throat and depending on how stunned he is, he may even aspirate on the blood. He is totally stunned and totally vulnerable to the next blow which will come as fast as I can recoil my arm. He will more than likely at that point, dropped whatever he was holding in his hand.

The next blow, I immediately follow-up with a devastating hammer strike blow directly to the heart with the same amount of force as the first strike. This type of blow will render a person unconscious. It works, I've seen it happen, repeatedly and I have no doubt it will happen when I do it.

At no point am I defending myself... I don't even think in terms like defense. It is pure violence of action focused on specific targets of which I already know what the body's autonomic reflex is going to be after being struck. It is based on autokinematics. The body will respond in a known way, without exception, every time to being struck in each location. It's only a matter of knowing which targets produce which response and you can literally choreograph what is going to happen in advance with each strike made. It is science based and not a form of martial arts.

I will have to clean the blood and vomit off my upholstery which is not going to make me happy.
 
#31 ·
I have wondered about putting a fixed blade knife some where within close hand reach for just such a case as this. Also would work for carjacker at driver side window. Maybe a holstered firearm mounted to seat or under dash close to hand but out of general sight. A close up attack, smelling his breath, is hard to deal with. Crushing his adams apple or stabbing in throat with small fixed blade should be very effective.

Side note: I have had total stranger in right seat of car, and then became very situation alert all at once, like hair so up on back of neck. Everything worked out ok, but it made another step on the road the becoming more situational aware. Some years ago pastor friend picked up HH and was beaten and robed and left for dead. Three month in hospital and much rehab and he is still not back to what he was before attack. Bad things do happen to good people, some people are just plain evil and must be stopped with the what every means possible.
 
#32 ·
As I'm driving with both hands on the steering wheel, at a select opportune moment, in less time than it takes to blink, with my right hand bladed out straight, I'm going to strike him so hard and so fast right square in the Adams Apple, it will probably cut his head off!
For those who are aware of what a strike takes to accomplish for the average person and for a skilled person, how likely is this for the average person to achieve?

It's not as though a kidnapper/jacker is going to be driving merrily along in the passenger's seat failing to be aware of me and my movements. Gross motor skills. Any such strike to the facial area is going to beget a fairly quick response from the person, like someone aiming a kick at the groin.

I'm all for taking out someone 2ft from me via a H2H shot to the larynx, but that person's armed and the average person isn't well-trained in H2H.
 
#35 ·
I understand your point. I am certainly not recommending this technique for people to do. I was just responding to what I would do.

I will admit the type of training I have had is different than most anyone will have ever seen and what works for me as a SCARS method fighter is NOT going to work for those who have no idea how SCARS works, what it is, or how to counter other movements or blocks performed by the aggressor.
 
#37 ·
I have a friend and his dad picks up HH's all the time...

He just looks over at them and tells them that at any point if they try something he is just going to drive into the ditch...

If he does it or not I dont know but I bet it scares them to death!
 
#38 ·
As a kid, my grandfather told me that he picked up a Hitch-hiker once and got a knife in the ribs and lost the car (temporarily). That led me to believe that one never should pick up a hitch hiker.

Back in my early 20's I lived in the Carribbean and had to hitch-hike all the time. (and picked up hitch hikers as well when I had a car). We really had a communal and collective way about getting places and helped each other out all the time. It's really a sad state of affairs our country has gotten to when we can't help out a fellow human being.

That said, I very likely might pick someone up, but only if I was armed and didn't have my kids in the car. I'd like to think someone less fortunate than I wouldn't "bite the hand that fed them" but I'd be very careful. I have a bayonet in the Jeep as well as my carry weapon...

JIm
 
#39 ·
Back in the '70s when I was young and dumb (now I'M old and just a little less dumb according to my wife) I picked up a HH. This scumbag pulled what I later learned to be a .22 revolver on me. At the time the muzzle looked like a cannon. As I said earlier, I was dumb and didn't get as scared as I did mad and floored the gas driving like a maniac. He kept telling me he was going to shoot me and I kept telling him he was going to die. After about 5 minutes of running red, stop signs, cutting people off and breaking any other traffic law I could think of at a high rate of speed I got pulled over. I came to a quick stop, rolled out of my vehicle face first on the ground and started yelling "GUN, GUN, GUN". Well, me and the HH ended up in cuffs until everything got sorted out then he stayed in them and I didn't. Later the police told me privately they thought it was a very cool and gutsy move. Publicly they would not advocate someone try it. Never picked up another HH, that cured it for me.
 
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