Random info that could save your life (how to escape from a car boot)

[billionzAndTrillionz]

Just a random bit of useful info from one of my son's PHCE lessons (teacher is ex-police 🙂) ...

If you're ever stuck in the boot of a car in a kidnap situation, there is usually a very visible quick-release handle inside. If not, or if the kidnapper has disabled it, you may be able to pull up the flooring of the boot and find a wire that connects the dashboard to the boot's quick release mechanism - pull it towards the driver and the boot should release.

Otherwise, find the wiring for the brake lights and pull them out, or smash them from the inside using whatever tools you can find - the car is then more likely to be stopped by police.

I dont want to worry any likely kidnappees but I thought boot handles were an American thing, how many UK cars have actual boots nowadays?

I'm sure most of us could have a pretty good go at pushing the parcel shelf out of the way

People who are drowning are usually silent and look like they’re doing an upright doggy paddle / climbing an invisible ladder. I suppose tell everyone you go swimming with, if you want this info to save your life ;)

If an attempted abduction your best chance to get away is IMMEDIATELY . This means fighting yelling scratching running even if threatened with knife or firearm or shot at. Once you are in vehicle your chance of survival is very very low. If you are out walking and a car stops and pulls over adjacent to the sidewalk turn the other way. They are positioning themselves to be close enough to jump out and grab you. Triple the risk if it’s a van or someone is standing next to car talking on phone with door open. Be leery of people in cars asking for help or directions. They want you to approach vehicle so someone in backseat can grab you. If you are on a sinking cruise ship or troubled boat put the life vest on and get on top deck. If in a building and the building next door is bombed or on fire or your building is compromised.. FLEE. Evacuate the building immediately. No one will fire you because you left your desk. The brokers from Ireland had evacuation kits on their back of their desk chairs and 100% evacuated and survived the north tower on 9/11 because that was their international company policy. and the brokers in the south tower “went back to work” when the market opened after being told they were safe. The building on fire next door IS your warning to get the hell out. The north tower was hit first but the south tower fell first.

There was a kid in America who got kidnapped and the kidnapper let him go because he constantly sang gospel songs, very loudly.

I'm quite fat and off key so I think I'll be fine.

If you ever find yourself buried alive in a coffin, it's easier to kick out the sides than the top. Pull your top over your face on the climb out to keep dirt out of your eyes/nose/mouth. Highly unlikely to need this info but it stuck in my head anyway!

Signs of an imminent lightning strike:
Hair standing on end
Tingling skin
A metallic taste in your mouth
The smell of chlorine (this is ozone, which is produced when nitrogen oxides from lightning interact with other chemicals and sunlight)
Sweaty palms
A vibrating, buzzing, or crackling sound coming from metal objects around you

If you notice any of these signs, it may be too late to avoid being struck and possibly injured or killed. However, if you find that you do have time to react, you should run as fast as you can to a safer location. Running limits the amount of time that both of your feet are on the ground at any given moment, reducing the threat from ground current (lightning that travels outward from the strike point along the ground surface).

This is so interesting!

Thanks to the public infomercials, I spent the 1970s convinced I was going to inadvertently wander into some quicksand, and was waiting for the opportunity to lie very flat so I wouldn’t sink. Unfortunately I’ve still not found that quicksand

Someone once told me that if you are in a burning building and have to open a door to escape then touch the handle with the back of your hand, if live electrical wires are touching the other side of the metal handle then your hand will be pushed off, if you hold the handle normally your muscles will contract and you won’t be able to let go. Disclaimer, I haven’t tried this.

This is absolutely true - when I was a kid I saw another kid drowning and genuinely didn't know that was what I was looking at. She was upright in the water and completely silent. Her mouth was slightly open and I remember being surprised she didn't shut it, because water was getting in. Luckily a lifeguard recognised what was happening and dived in and saved her (and bollocked her father, who was supposed to be in charge of her).

Personally I feel that this tip is much better than the original one

I used to write my mobile number in pen on the inside of my dc forearm if they went to a party or similar. My DS would’ve removed and discarded any clothing with a number on the label but there was no risk of his washing off pen

Very visible?
In the pitch fucking black whilst being rolled in all directions by the movement of the car?
Thanks for that OP.

Theres YouTube Shorts where someone phones (usually 911) and does the “can I order a pizza”. After the operator asks “do you know this is an emergency call…are you in trouble ..are you unsafe to talk” they can get info like address ( delivery) and how many people are there (can I have pizza for four people”

chilling but the operators are on the ball

I need to check my boot now . The odds of me being kidnapped and bundled into the same model of car are very high as every other car I see is the same as mine

I do say I'm not fat, I'm hard to kidnap.

Love this advice 😂

Let's not descend into kidnap shaming 😂😂

@DreamW3aver to be fair, if they manage it, they deserve me as a prize.😂😂😂

Ah now Ted ( Said in a Father Dougal voice) have you not seen Silence of the Lambs where he pretends to have an injury to his arm and she helps him load something into his van. He asks her what size she is …….

Learn from this :
Don’t sing American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as you drive
Don’t stop to help some apparently injured dodgy bloke. “ load your own bloody sofa, I need to feed the cat” should be your answer
Don’t tell him your size he wants to starve you in a disused cellar and skin you

Are you a police officer?

I did that unintentionally, caught my foot, slammed into the worktop and broke my ribs.

If you are trapped in a car that’s sinking in water roll the window down even a wee bit asap, it’s counter intuitive as you think you want to keep the water out but once the car is totally submerged the water pressure will make it almost impossible to open the door if it’s all sealed.

Tip I read somewhere once that stuck with me. May or may not be true but sounds plausible anyway.

And if that’s not working, get out of your house/flat so that there’s a better chance of someone seeing you and grasping what’s going on — a friend choked on peanut butter while living alone, self-heimlich didn’t work, ditto bashing herself against the edge of the table, so she ran out her front door onto the street, and fortunately a passerby managed to dislodge the blockage. Terrifying, though.

🤣🤣🤣

If you carry stuff in your boot, and usually have no one in the back seat of your car, criss cross the seat belts and clip them in. If you are in a crash, there is only a fairly small piece of plastic holding the seat backs up - so at velocity, it is easy for things in the boot to smash through and into you. If you have your seat belts connected like that, they will tighten as the back of the seats start moving forward, and will stop that happening.