I am a consultant in a COA city office and have to occasionally come into the office. I always carry. They have a "no handguns" sign on the building entrance, but they are not compliant with the law. The only person that knows I carry is me. I rarely travel around this ****hole without a weapon anymore.

I would rather be prepared. If I lose my job because of that...well...I'm ok with that.

Pretty soon Texas and other cities will call open hunting on these asshats, like Brazil and the motorcycle gangsters.

Maybe sooner than we all think.

Fightin_Aggie said:

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Blitz88 said:

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Fightin_Aggie said:

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I work in Austin. Our office has a 1 floor garage on the first floor. I walk out and see someone walking around my vehicle and as I walk up he starts checking the door handles I tell him to stop that's my car. I ask him to leave and he won't leave. I'm standing next to my driver side door and his partner starts to get out of their car next to me. I tell him to stay in the car they refuse. I jump in my car and hall but out of the garage. They jump in their car and take off after me. I get on the access road and onto the highway. They don't get on the highway so I think this is done. Then the driver leans out his window yelling then I hear a bang. He shot the passenger door of my car. I am on the highway now so I stop and call the cops. The bullet went through the door but hit the main console and fell on the passenger side mat. I later found out this was a .45 caliber hand gun.

Once I meet with the police they say this is a daily occurrence in Austin now. Among others, the Austin Police Department has lost their highway enforcement division, their drug enforcement division, their gang division and the zone that I was in was supposed to have 11 officers with patrol units only has 8. I also find out that this same perp had just stolen an item off someones porch and the owner saw them and confronted them they pulled out a gun and put it in the owner's face.

1. Carry
2. Get out and Vote! I live in Round Rock in Williamson County but the garbage that defunded the police won't stay in Travis county if you don't vote out the liberals. The Liberals want you to be afraid. They want you to suffer so they prosper.

Be safe out there. The officer stated that Austin was a very dangerous place right now and I am betting most big cities are as they are invested with Liberal garbage.

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Describe the perp(s)……

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Driver (shooter) - Hispanic male. 5'6" - sleeve tattoos and neck tattoos no face tattos, dark hair but not black, shaggy hair over the ears but not to the shoulders. wearing a black jersey like shirt with lots of letters on the front and some colors.

Passenger - Hispanic male 5'9" lighter complexion but not quite white. Black hair crew cut no tattoos. wearing a solid color shirt.

The driver gave me a name and said he lived in Pflugerville but I can't remember the name. I am fairly sure he was lying on his name.

They were driving an early 2000s, late 90s Gold Cadillac with a dent in the rear passenger door

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*THANKS*
Description saves lives...avoid Gold Cadillac with tatted Mexicans.

OP - Thank you for sharing your story.
Similar to Tanya's recent mugging, there are probably a few things we can all takeaway.

Here's my free advice so take it for what it's worth.

I'm writing this because I know my wife will read it and it's more effective for her to read some advice than for me to tell her the advice. I probably should have created a sock for this post.

The basics of the situation - you were at 183 & McNeil in a parking garage at your work, about a quarter to noon and you're a smaller guy who drives a truck and doesn't carry.

I'm not a professional but my advice comes from a lifetime of venturing into places where people who look like me don't normally go. Also a lifetime of keeping my eyes peeled and options open.

As others have stated, I can't believe this happened at 183 & McNeil. But, I guess it's everywhere now.

First thing about situational awareness - When I'm walking anywhere, as a general rule, I turn my head and look behind me every 3-5 steps. Especially when I'm by myself. I don't want to get snuck up on and you never know what's going to happen. If I'm glancing behind me every few seconds, I know when the situation changed and how long has somebody been there. Have they been following me for 5 seconds or 5 blocks.

My wife is terrible about this. When I used to pick her up from work, she would walk right past me sitting on a bench and never ever look around. I would follow her for 150 meters from her work to the parking lot where she thought I might be already waiting for her, never realizing that I'd been walking 10 feet behind her for the last 30 seconds.

Second thing about situational awareness - Is anything out of place? I'm not saying you have to memorize everybody's license plate at your office but, I would hazard a guess that the same people work in the office and drive the same car every day and park in about the same place. Or, they might have two cars. But the point is, that across the 100-200 parking spaces where you would routinely park, you're probably going to see the same cars every day. You would have noticed that you've never seen a Gold Cadillac in the parking lot before.

When I used to park in a parking garage at my office in El Segundo (Los Angeles), we didn't have assigned parking spaces and the general public who were going to one of the restaurants or the movie theater by my office could park where we parked our cars. But, as a general rule, all of the sales people would usually park their flashy Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes, etc. in the same place every single day. So eventually, you kind of learn which car belongs to who, so you know who is in the office and if you see anything out of the ordinary, it's worth making a mental note.

When I used to work for Dell in Round Rock 2, the parking lot was a sea of cars but even there, in a parking lot with 1,000s of spots, I would routinely park in the same area. So I knew what it was supposed to look like.

Another thing about parking in the same spot or area everyday, for a variety of reasons, some spots might be better than others due to safety, lighting, sunshine, darkness, etc. Those dudes aren't jacking with your truck if it's parked on the roof in the sun.

Third thing about situational awareness - You did a good job of identifying the perps and their getaway vehicle (probably stolen) but, when you identified them was the problem. It sounds like you had a long walk to your truck once you were inside the parking structure.

Personally, I'm always looking at who is in the parking lot/structure. Are there people in the car parked next to mine? Is their engine running, is their foot on the brake, headlights on, etc. Can you see people standing next to your vehicle? Feet underneath the vehicle?

You spotted the guy jacking with your vehicle which was good. You identified quickly that he had an accomplice, also good. But, you probably should have spotted those guys from 75 - 100 ft away.

If you were 75 ft away, you could have hit the alarm on the key fob and probably sent them scrambling. And given what I've read on the Automotive Board, if you've got a fancy tailgate, they might have just been trying to steal your $7,000 Platinum tailgate. They didn't even need to take the whole truck.

The only thing you could have done better given that you didn't identify them until you were within a few steps of your truck is, you should have gotten the license plate number on the Gold Caddy. I know, a tough ask but it could help the cops narrow it down.

Sidebar on the Cops - June 19th 1991 a buddy and I were attacked by a Black guy in an early 1970s Oldsmobile Cutlass who tried to smash our car window with his tire jack when we were leaving the dollar movies in Bryan. We called Bryan PD and an Officer shows up and took our statement. We gave him the license plate number and a description of the perp. We weren't actually injured, just scared. We asked the cop what he was going to do about it and he told us, "What do you expect me to do? It's Juneteenth".

Fast forward to Christmas shopping season 2003 and I'm at Park Meadows Mall in Denver and I see these two young punks run past me with a woman's purse, jump in a car and drive away. Since these idiots didn't know how to get out of the parking lot maze, I was able to run ahead of where they were going to go and catch their license plate number as they left. The Mall Cop had already called Douglas County Sheriff and I gave my statement to the cops, perp description, make/model of car, license plate number. The cops spent more time wondering how I knew what a Mitsubishi Galant was and didn't really buy my answer that it was because I drive a lot of crappy rental cars for work. There had been a rash of purse snatching at the mall but the cops weren't really going to do too much about it since it's not deadly and really only inconveniences one person.

Point here is that for petty crimes or almost crimes, the cops aren't going to do much and that's nothing new.

Now, the chase portion - I've been in a couple of car chase situations over the years. You have to consider what your options are with respect to speed and maneuverability. It sounds like you made a good escape other than the fact you took your eye off of them and they shot at you.

Remember Top Gun - Maverick? "Put on the brakes and they'll fly right by you"

Probably 1995, I had some guys on I-45S in Houston screwing with me as I was driving late at night. I was in a sports car that was faster than the car they were in so I ran it up to about 120 mph for a little bit and slowed down after I was well ahead of them. But, I kept watching my rear view mirror until I exited 10 miles later at NASA Road 1.

Summer 2003, I was working in Boca Raton but had gone down to Miami to see Paul Oakenfold in concert. Oakenfold didn't take the stage until after 2am and I had a 6am flight out of Ft. Lauderdale. So I had to leave about 3am to head back to my hotel, grab my stuff, shower, get dressed and get to the airport. I had some vigilante in a Ford Ranger pickup pull up on my ass on Northbound I-95 and then he started following my every move. I was in a crappy rental car so the only real advantage I had was maneuverability and the fact that I knew where I was going and he didn't.

I passed my exit on purpose and took the U-turn under I-95 to head back towards the exit where my hotel was. Dude followed me so I did the same U-turn and double back two more times. Then, I drove past my hotel, did another U-turn, drove down a side street and took the back entrance into the hotel so I was sure the guy could not have followed me. I didn't get the guy's license plate because I was more interested in getting away from him. For whatever reason, that guy tried to follow me and fortunately (I'm always checking the rear view mirror), I picked up on it.

What Next? - First off, when you go to work tomorrow, I advise driving a different car. If you don't have another car, work from home or call in sick. If neither of those are possible, park your truck on the roof of the structure, in the middle of the roof. Plenty of space all the way around it. Or, park in a different parking lot and walk to your office from there.

I would definitely be on the lookout every day when you arrive at work and every day when you leave work. Especially once the time change happens and you're leaving work after dark.

And last of all, remember the advice from the Emelio Estevez movie "Repo Man" - part of the Repo Code - "Only an a-hole gets killed for a car". Even if your car did get stolen, it's not worth your life.

Liberal austin used to be granola hippies and libertines and what not. Then they got infected by the west coast bitter angry neo marxist critical theorist race to the bottom virtue signaling competition leftists that engage in flat out extreme, irrational, and purposefully destructive and divisive ideological behavior.

That is really damaging the city and turning it into another San Fran, Seattle, Portland ****house.