Safe: Not Sorry!

Jan 16, 2002 4:27 PM

ELEVATORS

• Look up. When you're on the ground floor in a lonely office building or apartment house and the elevator door opens, chances are the elevator has been working its way down from the upper floors. Lean in, press B or subbasement, and step back out. Elevators usually tend to go to the bottom of the cycle before reversing their direction. Thus, a thug waiting in the basement will be greeted by an empty elevator when the door opens. The elevator is now in an up cycle and you can enter when it returns to the first floor.
• If, when you are riding in an elevator, someone gets on and your instinct tells you he or she might present a problem, get off. Again, don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings.
• If someone is standing in the elevator when the doors open and you are alone, you can let it pass. If the person inside asks, "What's the matter?" you can always say, "Oh, I left something in my car" or "I have to see somebody on another floor" or "This elevator is not going in my direction." Any excuse or no excuse. Chances are, if this is an innocent rider, he or she won't notice or be angry with you, and if he or she is, so what?
• If the ceiling cap is missing from the elevator, do not get on. Sometimes perpetrators ride on top of the car, hoping that someone will get in alone. Wait for other passengers and travel in numbers. Notify the building superintendent or security that the cap is off.
• Be sure you look in the convex mirror in the upper corner of the elevator before you get in. If you see someone you don't like, don't enter. Better bruised feelings than a bruised head.
• The first place you should look when you get into an elevator is the floor selection panel, which also has the emergency stop and alarm buttons. Stand near it.
• If you are attacked, reach out and press some floors as well as the alarm button. Do not try to point with your finger; instead, use your entire hand to press as many buttons as possible.
• When the elevator stops, scream "Fire"- rather than "Help" or "Rape." Some people prefer not to respond to a cry for help, but everybody wants to know where a fire is and will come running. There's safety in numbers.
• Whenever available or possible, ride an operator-controlled elevator rather than a fully automatic one.