Spears and arrows

I am a pretty strong girl and have taken self-defense classes, but on Sunday, suddenly, I was very conscious about my safety, so I went out and purchased pepper spray.

If any of you have read any of my previous editorials, you already know that I work at a restaurant/ bar called Locos Deli and Pub. Now naturally, when you work in a bar you tend to run into people whom are little out of the ordinary. I have always been concerned about my safety when leaving work, but this weekend a couple of events made me more aware of my safety.

Friday night the dishwasher took the trash out to the dumpster and noticed a man standing at the side of the building. Something about the man made the dishwasher uneasy and he told Andrew, our manager, about the man. Andrew went outside to investigate and found the man had moved from the side of the building and was now lurking at the front of the building near the door to the restaurant. Andrew kept his eye on the guy for a while, and although he didn’t do anything unusual, he continued to stand at various points around the building. Andrew put all of the waitresses on alert and told them not to leave the building without a male escort. By the time I left the bar, the man had disappeared. (However, since someone tried to burn down the building a few weeks ago, we are more suspicious of strangers lurking around.)

That same night a guy I had served at the bar earlier followed me to my friend’s house where I was staying for the evening. He asked to come in and have a drink of water to sober himself up before his drive home. We gave him some water and let him sit on the back porch of the house. He eventually left without doing anything out of the ordinary, but it caused me to think about my safety.

On Sunday, my friend took me to purchase pepper spray. She carries pepper spray in her purse and owns two guns. She keeps one in her house and one in her car. She warned me about the dangers of being alone at night, not armed with anything. I agreed to get pepper spray, police issued.

The reason I am telling everyone about my experience is to urge other girls on campus to be more safety conscious. Try not to walk on campus after dark, if you have to, walk in groups or call SNAP, the student night auxiliary patrol. SNAP would be more than happy to drive you back to your car or dorm. Avoid people that seem dangerous and use the campus call boxes when necessary. Pepper spray is a safe and reliable form of protection when used properly. Most of all just use a little common sense and be careful.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 11 2002. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry