Staying safe: Don't look like a victim

Tough times can lead people to commit desperate acts, putting personal safety at risk. One training course advises Step One: Don't look like a victim.

A carjacking in the Burnsville Center parking lot in February ... another in a south Minneapolis driveway in January ... a rash of burglaries since Christmas in St. Paul Park ... the arrest this month of a man who broke into 30 homes in Edina while residents slept. ...

Overall crime statistics have been trending down, but numbers don't matter when you're walking to your car and notice a hooded figure nearby, or when you hear -- what was that? -- a bump in the night. Even while praising Minneapolis police, Mayor R.T. Rybak cautioned that the stumbling economy and budget deficits threaten law enforcement's strength and might drive some people to desperate acts. So it makes sense to know how to fend off a mugging, or worse.

For female employees of M&I Bank, that means knowing the "cat move." It means knowing the "leg lift." It means knowing to run at the glimpse of a gun.

They learned these moves from Al Horner, who never imagined he'd find a new career teaching such classes at age 62. Horner, a former Navy SEAL, owns the Aaron Carlson Corp., a century-old furniture and woodworking firm in Minneapolis. Four years ago, as a favor to a friend whose daughter was going off to college, he taught her some self-defense skills. Three weeks later, she needed to use them.

"His daughter came back and gave me a hug and I thought, you know, I think this is what I'm supposed to be doing," Horner said. "It took me by surprise."

Diane Wysocki signed up for the recent M&I class at the bank's Edina branch. "I thought it was a really good class to create awareness," she said. "Much of what he did made it seem real with the fake weapons. Even the language he used was very much ... " She laughed, somewhat at a loss for words. Her discomfiture is understandable -- and intentional. Horner says his classes are about creating a "muscle memory" response to danger that many women have never experienced.

"I say, 'A mind is a terrible thing to use.' Don't overthink. Act," he said.