For instance I will not drive by myself at night, unless I am driving over to the Gautrain to pick Vince up. Until I get to know Joburg better, I am regarding every place as off limits by myself at night. This is a huge concession.
I was invited to an art opening at the Wits Art Gallery the other night. The Wits is in the Central Business District (CBD) of Johannesburg and is fairly abandoned at night when the business day is through. Vince was out of town and none of my neighbors were interested in going so I didn't go. Even though they did offer secure underground parking, I just did not feel comfortable. What if I got a flat tire on the highway? That policy may change over time I am sure. But for right now - no driving by myself at night!
However I never plan to drive in Soweto or Alexandra alone. Day or night. I would like to see some of the historical sights in Soweto which I will do on a reputable Soweto Tour.
I will use my security alarm system. We had a house security system in Fanwood but more than half the time I never set it. Even when I wasn't home. I actually hardly ever locked my doors and we never locked them at the beach house either until we left after Labor Day. Locks + Alarm = New Habit.
I will also use my safe. That will be easy. We had a heavy duty submarine combination lock safe in Fanwood and I was religious about putting my jewelry away in it. But that was less out of fear of break-in and more because I didn't want to tempt any cleaning ladies or handymen or more likely misplace or lose anything myself.
But unlike the suburbs, New York City called for more vigilance. I was always acutely aware of who was walking behind me, in the shadows, in my blind spot of my car. I avoided certain neighborhoods like the Bowery BG (Before Giuliani.) Now you can walk the entire length of Bowery from Astor Place to Chinatown at night alone and be fully at ease, but it wasn't always that way.
I never drove my car with my purse or packages in the front passenger seat (potential smash and grab) in the city. I really never parked my car with anything of value in it. I had my trunk broken into so many times during the 80's when I would park on the street that I stopped getting the lock fixed after a while. Stereo system thefts were also a common occurrence in the 80's and we had our car window smashed a couple of times for the stereo. We finally bought removable Blaupunkt stereos which I would take out of our car and bring with me into the restaurant or theater. After a while they made theft-proof radios and stereo systems that self-destructed or something if they were removed from your dashboard. But I went through at least three break-ins before I got smart, got a removable radio and put a sign in my car window that said, "No radio!"
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| bear kill in Denali |
Columbus Avenue in broad daylight with our friend Spencer after brunch one Sunday in the 80's and we came upon someone smashing in our car window to steal our radio. Vince and Spencer tore down the street ahead of me and tackled the perpetrator, and Spencer held him face down on the ground while Vince woke the cop up on the corner. Horrific! Worse than watching a male lion rip apart a freshly killed kudu on the Serengeti or watching three huge brown bears stalk, trap and kill something (we were never really sure what it was) in a bush in Denali or watching a seal beat an octopus to death on the rocks in the Galapagos. Trust me, I saw them all and this was much much worse! The urban jungle can be a senseless and cruel environment.
I do not feel I have had to modify my day-to-day urban security policy here very much at all. Not that I could if I wanted to. It is so ingrained. I always have an exit plan, an escape route, street insurance. I am an Urban Guerrilla. But I did add a few tricks to my kit since coming to Joburg:
1. I now always check the handle on my car door after I lock it with my remote. Some car thieves have a jammer that stops your remote from locking the doors so they can simply open the door after you walk away to ransack it or outright steal.
2. I always look behind me as I open the driveway security gates if there is no one in the security tower at my apartment complex. Baddies have been known to follow women from shopping malls and banks and then force themselves into their house to burgle and do worse.
3. I always wait for the security gate to close before driving away to make sure so one is hiding in the bushes to sneak in before it closes. Once again if no one is in the security tower which there usually is.
4. I will not stop for a "blue light" if I am alone or in a deserted area and never, never at night. This is advice I have been given by some of the locals. "Blue lights" are the police and if you are attempted to be pulled over when you are alone or feel unsafe, you should turn on your yield lights to signal to them that you recognize you are being pulled over and continue driving until you get to a security tower or a shopping mall with a security guard or to someplace you feel safe. Once you pull over, I am told do not get out of your car, do not shut your car off and do not unlock your car.
5. I do not carry a ton of money in my purse. I only carry a copy of my passport and not the original. I do not wear a lot of expensive-looking jewelry on the street.
6. And I always tip the parking guards.
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