Page 60 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2016

60 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • September 2016
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self defense
Holly Lemoine-Raymond of Bay St. Louis and Lisa
Shackelford of Ocean Springs both had uneasy experiences
with strangers that led them to take further precautions for their safety.
A broker-agent, Lemoine-Raymond recently showed four people a remote fishing camp in Hancock County. She had taken precautions by letting her staff know where she was going, photographed the license plate of the vehicle the people were riding in, and had someone waiting in her car at the main road near the property’s dirt road entrance.
“Still everything in my mind was red light, red light, red light,” she said. As they walked
up the dirt road, one of
the men pulled a gun
out of his cargo shorts
and carried it in his
waistband. She noticed
they weren’t looking
around the place as
interested buyers. When
they reached the pond, Lemoine- Raymond left the group by saying she wanted to look inside the fish camp. She snuck around the back, slammed a door like she was inside, and then ran into the woods back to the safety of her vehicle.
Like Lemoine-Raymond, Shackelford’s experience was in broad daylight — she was putting gas in her vehicle when a man approached her asking if she could help him put gas in his car. She noticed another man in the car, and
felt uneasy. She declined, and left the gas station as soon as possible.
“It was a weird experience,” she said. In response, Shackelford wanted to have the confidence to defend herself, so she joined a self- defense class at American Martial Arts Academy in D’Iberville.
Lemoine-Raymond has since established stricter safety requirements for agents at her real estate company. They run license plate checks, let others know where they are showing houses and properties, and use a buddy system.
In both cases, the women followed their intuition and left uncomfortable situations. If someone threatens any
woman’s personal space, she needs
to know how to respond in a way that will allow her
to escape, said Jim Fiore, head instructor at American Martial Arts Academy in
D’Iberville. He offers a 12-week self- defense course using Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that allows his students to learn retention, recall and response if faced with threatening behavior.
Other ways women can protect themselves, according to www.roogirl.com, is to mentally prepare, have a plan, be aware of your surroundings, don’t look like a victim, be car smart, know your strengths and his weaknesses, don’t be relocated, and stay alert even on vacation.
BE ALERT, BE SMART, BE PREPARED
Story and photos by Susan Ruddiman