A related hint - carry a light source. I was in a big old supermarket when a storm took down all the lights. No significant emergency lightning. My EDC Surefire made it out to the door. I also have a mini backup light on my key chain. Yes, your phone has a light but a real light is better.
Flash Mob, How Do You React?
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Ironicaintit
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Light source is a great idea. I was once in a crawlspace of a large commercial building, and somebody shut the lights off. This is pre-cell phone days. Never again omg. I have (2) flashlights on me at all times.
Howland937
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So is the number of criminals somehow relevant? My personal preference is to not involve myself in a situation where a crime is being committed. If the crime isn't a threat toward my person or my family, it's not my responsibility to do anything. 1 criminal shoplifting or 50 shoplifters, doesn't matter. Stay out of their way and let the folks who get paid to deal with it deal with it.
I do doubt seriously that many folks here live more than 50 miles from a city where something like this has occurred. If they're doing it in cities with a large LE presence, it won't be long til they figure out our quiet suburbs and rural communities have fewer cops...especially if enough stores in their area close.
We don't have a great plan, but it's the plan we have. If my wife and I are shopping separately and something goes down, she's to head straight for the car. In the event of a fire, shooting, mass robbery, etc. don't come looking for me. Head for the car and call me. Just make sure the alarm you hear is for a fire and not a tornado.
I do doubt seriously that many folks here live more than 50 miles from a city where something like this has occurred. If they're doing it in cities with a large LE presence, it won't be long til they figure out our quiet suburbs and rural communities have fewer cops...especially if enough stores in their area close.
We don't have a great plan, but it's the plan we have. If my wife and I are shopping separately and something goes down, she's to head straight for the car. In the event of a fire, shooting, mass robbery, etc. don't come looking for me. Head for the car and call me. Just make sure the alarm you hear is for a fire and not a tornado.
herrwalther
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Summer was real hot in Alabama this year. All those ACs can tax an electrical grid and cause occasional blackouts that will cover a couple blocks. Happened just this past August at a store I was in. Lights went off, music stopped. People started to get uncomfortable and irritable waiting for the power to blink back on. It took all of 5 minutes before I heard a few arguments between customers and some arguing with employees. Like they can make the power for the whole block come back on. Almost turned into a mob, over AC. Pocket flashlight got us out of the store. Always with me.
Yes and no. If I see a criminal holding up a store, I'll make a mental note of description to be a good witness, then move away. Unfortunately good Samaratans can face repercussions for stopping a robbery if they are not in immediate danger. If a mob happens, you can be attacked from multiple sides. You cannot keep a detailed focus on more than one person bent on committing crime. Now we can cross our fingers and hope they are just going to rob the place and leave before police show up. But there have been assaults, homicides, arsons and numerous other felonies just because people got in the way of the mob-rob spree. An area of the store where you are safe from one criminal is not the same as 50 that can come from anywhere.
Styx
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I don't worry about such things. The only time I typically hear about these things is on gun forums as it comes with the territory unfortunately for me. Ever since I stopped watching "if it bleeds, it leads" 24/7 for profit and views news cycle and social media, the sky stopped falling for me. It's their job to keep people outraged, angry, scared, on edge, and to believe everyone or others who don't look like you or share your beliefs are the boogiemen that are out to get you. They're great at what they do.
I stopped worrying about each and every one in a few million bad things that have happened to some random person in the U.S. or the world happening to me. I just practice, train with, and collect firearms because I enjoy doing it, and go about my daily life while employing the common sense bestowed onto me by whomever created me. I also live my life, go to movies theaters, sporting events, shopping at malls, festivals, concerts, restaurants, road trips, etc, e.i., I don't stop living my life and act like a hermit out of fear that the boogieman will get me. I'm still here, so there's that....
I stopped worrying about each and every one in a few million bad things that have happened to some random person in the U.S. or the world happening to me. I just practice, train with, and collect firearms because I enjoy doing it, and go about my daily life while employing the common sense bestowed onto me by whomever created me. I also live my life, go to movies theaters, sporting events, shopping at malls, festivals, concerts, restaurants, road trips, etc, e.i., I don't stop living my life and act like a hermit out of fear that the boogieman will get me. I'm still here, so there's that....
I was on an articulating lift in a carpentry shop with a lot of conduit, A/C and vacuum ducts, and a sprinkler system. I had wormed up into a really tight spot when the timer shut the lights off with me alone in the building. If I didn't have a flashlight, I would have had to spend the night.
GEM makes a great point above. There are so many more emergencies that require being able to see than being able to shoot. I don't go anywhere without a flashlight. They make very small, very bright flashlights nowadays. No reason not to have one or two.
The question was, what is the safest response should a flash mob robbery occur.
Styx
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In so many words, it's not something I think about or see happening to me. If I found myself in that situation, I'd do what I'd do in the infinite number of scenarios, possible things, and what-ifs that could go wrong at any given second of my life which is use my common sense to decide what the best option is at that time based on what's happening, my location, what the threat decides to do, and whatever options are available to me. My plan is basically to do whatever I can do at the time to avoid bodily harm and to get to safety. I won't know exactly what that looks like until (if ever) one of these "what-if" situations unfortunately happens to me.
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fastbolt
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Perhaps he thinks the actions of the monkeys aren't his business, since it's not his circus? Not his playground to act as Monitor?
Elkins45
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I own an embarrassing number of high-end flashlights yet the one I keep in my pocket is a simple LED Maglight Solitaire. It takes a single AAA and (most importantly) is unscrew to activate so it never turns on in my pocket. It’s the only Maglight product I would use for anything other than a club.
The value of these exercises is in reminding us to pay attention to the locations of exits or other spaces that may be useful in emergencies, whether those emergencies are a flash mob or a fire or some other issue and to think through, at a general level, what sort of responses might make sense in various situations. And it's useful to get input from others about things like having a flashlight handy, for example.
It's not about "knowing exactly what that looks like". It's about thinking about options so you can start doing something useful immediately instead of trying to figure things out on the fly.
Securitygeek
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Amazon.com 
Fortunately, I hate shopping anyway. COVID did teach me one valuable skill - I grocery shop like I'm robbing the place - use a list, move fast, get out ASAP.
Fortunately, I hate shopping anyway. COVID did teach me one valuable skill - I grocery shop like I'm robbing the place - use a list, move fast, get out ASAP.
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The Night Rider
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I always carried a flashlight in my toolbox. One day I was at work in the middle of the factory and all the power got shut down(I can't imagine how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they lost from scrapped product).
Long story short I grabbed my flashlight which was just a mini mag and walked off the factory floor.
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The Night Rider
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This just needed to be repeated
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The Night Rider
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So after reading through all the responses several times there's a couple of things that stand out to me.
1. I AM NOT holing up in a bathroom. That is asking to be trapped.
My plan depends on whether or not I'm in the front or the back of the store. I rarely if ever end up in the middle of the store. If I'm in the back I'm hitting the loading dock and going out the back door.
That's my basic plan. Leave my cart, find the nearest exit and use it.
1. I AM NOT holing up in a bathroom. That is asking to be trapped.
My plan depends on whether or not I'm in the front or the back of the store. I rarely if ever end up in the middle of the store. If I'm in the back I'm hitting the loading dock and going out the back door.
That's my basic plan. Leave my cart, find the nearest exit and use it.
fastbolt
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Absolutely. It's difficult to make good decisions, let alone see/recognize potential threatening conditions, if you can't see them.
During the course of my career I couldn't begin to count the number of times and situations in which I found myself in low/no light conditions inside buildings at high noon.
Nowadays, in my retirement, I find I usually feel more 'naked' and ill-equipped for exigent situations if I'm without a small light in my pocket, than if I'm without a knife (or more properly, knives) or a gun.
TANSTAAFL.
fastbolt
Member
Granted, intentionally confining myself in a small contained space for which the entrance is also the only exit wouldn't exactly be among my idea of the Top 3 tactics I'd wish to have at my disposal.
Fish in a barrel comes to mind. 
fastbolt
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Abso-freaking-lutely.
starnbar
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I will worry about that when it happens the what if response is BS you don't know who you are up against and the decision you make needs to be done then and there not sitting at home drinking your cup of coffee
You will need some basic information to make your decision "then and there" and if you haven't thought about it ahead of time, you are unlikely to have the information available. Things like where alternate exits are, which areas of the store are least likely to be targets for a flash mob robbery, places to hide if you can't get to an exit, etc. You may decide that having certain tools on hand might be a good idea and that's definitely something you would want to think about in advance.
The idea isn't to think up a detailed perfect plan in advance, the idea is to think about possibilities and options so you have a rough framework to start from and so you can collect any information you might need and have the proper tools on hand.
The idea isn't to think up a detailed perfect plan in advance, the idea is to think about possibilities and options so you have a rough framework to start from and so you can collect any information you might need and have the proper tools on hand.
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The Night Rider
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I remember a trainer that said once that there's a little Rolodex inside your brain and when something comes up your Consciousness starts flipping through that Rolodex looking for an appropriate response.
If it doesn't find an appropriate response it will continue to cycle through the loop looking for a response and that when that happens you will go all "Deer in the Headlights."
That's why we train scenarios. That's also why we do thought exercises here.
starnbar
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I believe that is what I said there are allways variables especially if you have never been in that establishment before it is not a good idea to try to find alternate escape routes in the middle of a civil insurrection.
You said you would "worry about that when it happens". To mount a reasonable response rapidly, it's important to "worry about it" in advance.
Exactly. You would need to know that information ahead of time--which you won't if you wait until it happens to start thinking about it.
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