Cornish Lad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2017
- Messages
- 381
In 1991 we decided to take my wife’s parents with us on a trip to WDW. We were late booking and could only get a flight from Gatwick to Miami on the way out – ok from Orlando on the way back. As we were arriving in Miami in the early evening we booked to stay there overnight. The following day we decided to drive, in our hire car, to the beach area for a look before heading off to Orlando. We stopped at a set of traffic lights and a guy jumped out of the car behind us, ran up to the front passenger door and smashed the window with a screwdriver. His intention was to reach in and grab my wife’s handbag which, he thought, would be on her lap but instead of getting a bag he got a big surprise!
1) My wife always put her handbag down in the footwell as it was rather large and too big to sit on her lap so there was nothing there to grab.
2) My wife was an occupations assistant at Broadmoor Hospital – the most secure place in the UK for the criminally insane – and was fully trained in control and restraint.
3) My father-in-law was a security guard for a large company in the Uk and was also trained for self- protection.
So, as this guy was reaching into the car his face met my wife’s elbow as it was heading up and out of the window. My father-in-law opened his back door as I started to accelerate to get away from the scene. The guy, trapped by the side of the car and the opened back door was dragged several yards down the road before he could get himself loose and roll on the ground to get away.
We made our way back to the car hire place and they were really shocked at what had happened and they asked me to contact Miami PD to report the incident so as to get a crime number for their insurance. I spoke with a lady sergeant at Miami PD and gave her all the details and her final question was “did he get anything” and when I said “only a bloody nose” she replied in a lovely southern drawl “right onnn”. I can hear her saying that to this day!
The car hire company was great and gave us an upgrade in the car and also gave us a full tank of fuel. Soon after our incident some German tourists were mugged and murdered in the same area! The incidents became more frequent and, in the end, I believe that the authorities moved all of the car hire companies to the inside of the airport and also did away with the hire plates that were on the cars in those days so that tourists in hire cars were not so easily identified by the criminals.
Since then our journeys to WDW have been relatively uneventful
1) My wife always put her handbag down in the footwell as it was rather large and too big to sit on her lap so there was nothing there to grab.
2) My wife was an occupations assistant at Broadmoor Hospital – the most secure place in the UK for the criminally insane – and was fully trained in control and restraint.
3) My father-in-law was a security guard for a large company in the Uk and was also trained for self- protection.
So, as this guy was reaching into the car his face met my wife’s elbow as it was heading up and out of the window. My father-in-law opened his back door as I started to accelerate to get away from the scene. The guy, trapped by the side of the car and the opened back door was dragged several yards down the road before he could get himself loose and roll on the ground to get away.
We made our way back to the car hire place and they were really shocked at what had happened and they asked me to contact Miami PD to report the incident so as to get a crime number for their insurance. I spoke with a lady sergeant at Miami PD and gave her all the details and her final question was “did he get anything” and when I said “only a bloody nose” she replied in a lovely southern drawl “right onnn”. I can hear her saying that to this day!
The car hire company was great and gave us an upgrade in the car and also gave us a full tank of fuel. Soon after our incident some German tourists were mugged and murdered in the same area! The incidents became more frequent and, in the end, I believe that the authorities moved all of the car hire companies to the inside of the airport and also did away with the hire plates that were on the cars in those days so that tourists in hire cars were not so easily identified by the criminals.
Since then our journeys to WDW have been relatively uneventful
