You never know when and where your personal safety might be threatened, or may be the victim of a crime. One prime location is in a parking lot of local stores. Just getting in and out of your vehicle can be dangerous if you aren’t paying attention. It can be just one person who accosts you, or it could be more. Do you know what to do? When you leave a store are you instantly looking for suspicious people. Maybe someone hanging around the lot, or worse, your car? Even before then, did you notice anyone in the store you were just at who may have been following you?

I’m not trying to scare you. Quite the contrary, I want you to start paying attention. This time of year we are all preoccupied by other things…especially if we are shopping for the Holiday season. It’s very easy to ignore everything around you and that includes potential dangers like lurking criminals, or criminals of opportunity.

So what can you do when leaving a store and going back to your Buick, or GMC? Take a look at the video below for some helpful tips.

It is difficult to predict behavior, but easy to PAY ATTENTION to it, especially with all the paths of communication these days. In every case where a crime or theft has been committed, there have been warning signs, clues, and outright threats that go ignored.

If you feel nervous, or threatened alert a security guard, or police officer. Around the holiday season, patrols are usually heightened and there are more officers in and around stores. Remember, the people who are victims of crime are the people who are not alert, or prepared.

Freeman Grapevine wants this to be the best Holiday Season it can be, so take a little extra care this year and use your better judgement when you are carrying armfuls of bags out to your vehicle.

If you have any stories or tips you can share about ways of staying safe this year, please share write them in the comments section below.