 |  | SALES MEETING TOOL KIT: SAFETY | |
|  Component 1: Safety talking points overview Component 2: Safety Agenda handouts overview Component 3: Action Plan Worksheet Component 4: Action Plan Worksheet (blank) Component 5: Safety In The News: Safety First Component 6: Activity List Component 7: Activity 2a, 2b and 2c Worksheet Component 8: Activity 2a, 2b and 2c Answers Component 9: 10-Second Rule for Personal Safety Component 10: 10-Second Rule Reminder Card Component 11: Safety Scenario Component 12: Facilitator Notes for Safety Scenario Component 13: Defending Yourself Component 14: Other Resources | Component 5: True Stories Safety First BY RICHARD WESTLUND April 5 she let down her guard at the wrong time. "I was in the office and the phone was ringing off the hook,” she says. "A man said he wanted to . . . see a $375,000 house . . . right away." Barbara Slaughter, a broker for Property Associates Inc, Tallahassee, Fla., told the caller she had to contact the owner, asked for his name and number, and promised to call him back. She did. She later learned that he gave a fictitious name and provided a number in nearby Monticello that turned out to be a pay phone at a restaurant where he was waiting for her return call. Slaughter agreed to meet him at the property, which was located in a rural area. "When I arrived, he was sitting in an orange van wearing a-T-shirt" she said. Slaughter, had been talking with an associate on her car phone as she pulled up. Before hanging up, she said, "This guy makes me uneasy, but you can't always judge a book by its cover." Although Slaughter thought no one was home, a Bronco was sitting in the driveway, and the woman who lived at the house waved to them from the house. Slaughter showed the man around the home, and he acted like a typical buyer. After the tour, he asked to see another house closer to town, a vacant three-bedroom on a one-acre lot. "I was in a hurry, so I turned into the driveway," Slaughter says. "He pulled in behind me. I got the key from the lockbox, and we went inside. I tried to stay behind him as we went from room to room. He asked a lot of questions, like a buyer, and I was feeling comfortable. As we came back through the kitchen, I turned my back on him to get a flier off the counter. When I did that, he grabbed me from behind and caught me by the wrists." The attacker wedged Slaughter between himself and the kitchen counter so that she couldn't move. She screamed, which unnerved the attacker, who may have intended to harm her. "He said, 'If you shut up, I'll tell you what I want. I want money,"' she recalls. "I told him I had $10 in the car, and I would give it to him if he let me go. After about 15 minutes in the kitchen, I talked him into letting me go to the car." At the car, Slaughter managed to slam his arm with the door, jump inside, and lock the door. However, her keys and phone were still inside the house, "All I thought of was giving him the $10 because I had promised it to him. But he must have thought I had a gun in the car because he ran back to the van." Slaughter's car was trapped in the driveway by the van and her car phone was still in the house. She cracked the window slightly and held the $10 bill out but the man. Apparently thinking that she was armed, he wouldn’t approach the car and motioned for her to get out. Finally, she got out, threw the crumpled bill across the car and quickly locked the door. He retrieved the money and sped off. Concerned that he might be heading back to the first house, where he knew the woman was home alone, Slaughter called the police and then raced off to warn the property owner. To her knowledge, the man didn't return to the house, but the police recently informed Slaughter that someone matching the description of her attacker harmed a real estate practitioner in Jacksonville, Fla. Slaughter, who's been a practitioner since 1978, says it's taken her a long time to recover. "We trust everybody here because we have a small-city atmosphere. We're not used to dealing with crime. But everyone must be careful. Now, I ask callers to meet at the office first rather than the property." Reprinted with permission of Florida REALTOR Magazine. Copyright 2001. Activity List, next page > |