Can You Read The Signs?

Can you read the signs? The signs that somebody has been around your place of business or residence while you were away.

As any police officer or professional security person can tell you you can easily detect such things by keeping an eye open for things on the ground like cigarette butts or other objects dropped carelessly by people visiting or snooping around your home or business site after or before you left.

Other things that "talk to you" about such visitors might include foot or hand prints left in the soil and carpets etc, or crushed or broken branches in front of windows or around doorways..

More than likely these types of things do not happen often or they are caused by somebody who is no threat to you --but you might be surprised. On more than one occasion we have received a call from neighbors across the the street who say somebody trying to peak in our front windows late at night.

Once you are aware of such signs welcome or unwelcome visitors to your property leave behind you will be more prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect your privacy -- as well as your property and yourself as well as clients to who visit you.

Become A People Watcher

Often the most vauable way you can help fight crime is by being a living camera when you witness suspicious persons or criminal incidents. Yet the accurate description of criminals can be a big problem -- with the description sometimes being the opposite of reality or being very fuzzy.


Yet this can be overcome with a little effort. Instead of walking past people we meet as we walk along the street it is not a bad idea to try and recreate at least some of those persons you pass in your mind if you have the time. You might have a little trouble at first, but it is just like riding that bicycle when you were younger. Practice makes perfect.


Some things you might observe (descretely) as you pass people are things like their eyes. Are they wide apart or close together. What about their shape? Are they round or oval? Do they have a down or up slant?


What is the shape of their eybrows? Are they arched or straight. Do they have a down slant or are they irregular in shape? Are they thick, bushy, or thin?. What of their eye expression? Are they closed lidded with the eyelid covering part of their eye or are their eyes wide open?


Noticing these things, and others we will be mentioning later can help you to create a more accurate picture for the police ( or if you are a budding novelist the beginnings of some interesting characters).

Watch Out For The Silent Killer

As the weather turns colder at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere millions of furnaces are going to be turned back on, but before you do make sure yours is in proper working condition or you could be sentencing yourself and your family to brain damage or death.


Carbon monixide resuslts from incomplete combustion in the furnace burner and is colorless, ordorless, and tasteless; it is a silent killer.


When exposed to it your blood cells prefer it to oxygen starving your body of oxygen with devastating results: Exposure to low levels of this gas over a period of time can result in permanent brain damage. Coma and respiratory failure resulting in death are certain with a prolonged exposure to higher levels of carbon monixide.


There are a number of things you can do to fight this silent killer:

• Check all interior gas connection
• Check all gas burning furances and other appliances to make sure that the flame is blue --and not red -- which warns of an incomplete combustion problem.
• Install a carbon monoxide alarm. They are not that expenssive
• If someone is overcome remember to get them to oxygen and call the paramedice for respiratory assistance immediately.

H ow Observant Are You?

Just how observant are you? This can be a critical question because those persons who are planning to attack or follow you often spend some time watching -- either as they pass you on sidewalk or roadway or as you leave your home or place of business.

And the thing is that if the people we teach as prospective security guards in the school where I am an instructor is any indication -- most people go about most of their daily like zombies.

In class after class after we reach the half way mark of the week long class I can ask the class to describe the entrance stairway to me and most of the students do not have a clue about what the interior of the building outside the classroom look like.

It can be a source of laughs as student after student fumbles around trying to remember what his or her surroundings like like. But in view of the fact that there seems to he an increasing number of persons disappearing or being attacked in some way it not something to take lightly.

Without becoming paranoid about the matter and thinking that everyone who looks at you out of the corner of their is about to attack or stalk you should become more aware of your location and surroundings so you do not stumble into either man-made or natural hazards. We will be talking more about this later.

Hone Your Highway Survival Skills

Now is the time to hone your roadway defensive driving skills with wintery weather in the Northern Hemisphere just about upon us.

Needless to say you will not be able to drive defensively behind the wheel of a car, van or truck -- or behind the handlebars of a motorcycle of you succumb to any of the following things:

(1) fatigue (2) anger (3 )anxiety, (4) excitement (5) the use of a cell phone ( especially to send text messages (6) drive in the "blind spot" of other drivers -- (Stay highly visible to other drivers.) (7) attempting to share a lane with a cyclist or motorcycle rider and (8) forgetting to drive defensively -- anticipating the mistakes of other drivers

All of this is especially vital to remember for motorcycle riders; they are 23 times more likely to die in motor vehicle accidents as are drivers of other vehicles.

Avoid these mistakes while driving and you will be less likely to be among the 1,200,000 persons who die in traffic accidents around the world each year.

Sometimes Buttoning Your Lip Is The Best Tactic

Here is a little suggestion to keep when driving. This little episode happened to me personally when I was travelling through a busy intersection up here in Vancouver, BC and encountered another driver sitting in the middle of a busy intersection -- through changing of traffics lights -- two times.


I grew snappish, and when the light turned green the third time I pulled up beside him and shouted, " Get off your cell phone and drive," and continued on through the intersection.


I quickly forgot the whole episode until three months later when I was traveling thrugh the same intersection and got stopped in a traffic jam. Then a car pulled up in front of me. and the driver, a fairly big man, jumped out and walked bacto me, stuck his head in my car window and shouted, "Remember me? I'm the guy on the cell phone three months ago! Don't you ever do that to me again buddy!"


I started to laugh to hard the manjust shut up, gave me a disgusted look at strode back to his car and sped away -- leaving me to wait for the next green light.


A humourous incident? Yes, but it could have turned out much differently and since then I make it a point to try and just ignore other drivers and their irritating antics behind the wheel.

Watch Those Credit Card Charges

If you, like me, are inclined to take too much for granted with credit card charges -- be careful. You might be in for a nasty surprise if you are not matching up your monthly statement with copies of receipt you have.


We assumed that our monthly statements on this account were fairly accurately done and never bothered to keep copies of all the receipts to check our monthly statements.


Then the credit card company zapped us with a claim that our charges suddenly exploded beyond our average monthly purchases and demanded immediate payment of the total amount.


When they told how much our purchases had suddenly escalated we were astounded and asked the credit card representative to send us copies of these mysterious charges. They refused and responded by freezing our other two accounts when we continued press them for signed copies of receipts to match with ours. This battle is still going on with no end in sight.


Remember to check and double check your credit card statements with your copies of receipts. This, as you can see in our case is not absolute protection, but at least it will give you something to fight the crecit card company with in court if the amounts are large enough and you deciide to fight them.

Welcome To the Protector

Welcome to to The Protector, a digest of different ways you can protect yourself in our social and business lives.

Beware of Possible Blood Clots on Long Trips

Our first warning comes by way of The Province and Reuters back on July 12, 2009. The story warned of the dangers to persons travelling for more than two hours wedged in the tight seats of either a car or airplane seat.


Airplane passengerss who can not get up and move around easily are especially in jeopardy of developing dangerous blood clots.


The report mentions that a Dr. Divay Chandra and colleagues at Harvard University in Boston have proved a definitely link between long air travel and the development of venous thromboembolism or VTE which can kill through strokes, heart attacks or damage to the lungs


According to the Harvard researchers the absolute risk is one case in every 4600 trips -- not enough to justify issuing passengers with anti-clotting drugs. Still there appears to be a very real danger especially for pregnant women or those taking birth control pills -- and obviouslyfor those persons with any type of circulatory problems.


As the report mentions, with the large number of persons travelling by air, estimated to be approximately 2.5 billion in 2010 a fairly large amount of travverls could have problems with blood clots while travelling and while not recommending that all travellers take some sort of anticoagulant they do recommend that persons travelling by air for a long time remember to drink lots of water and move around as much as possible. It might also be a good idea to discuss any possible problems with your family physician before embarkign of any long air trips.