My friend Ann was helping me to organize the warehouse today and brought me some of her inventory that she is selling. I passed on the candle sticks even though they look great. They are made out of glass and I was concerned that you can knock someone out with it. I was a cocktail waitress in college, I saw what beer bottles can do. From our conversation about safety, she told me a shocking story about a local realtor was raped by her potential buyer during the showing of the home.
The man attacked her, choked her, raped her and robbed her. The agent befriended the man and actually told him that she would help him by setting up a job interview. The woman was planning on vigilante justice on him but instead her relative convinced her to call the police. When the attacker showed up for the interview, the deputy was waiting for him.
As crazy as the story sounded, it is even more shocking that it happened locally. There is always this false sense of security in our lives, we feel that we are invincible and terrible things won't happen. Like agents, stagers do make house calls and we do place our trust on the strange caller believing that they would be who they say they would be. I had told a potential client once "sorry, I don't make consultations at 8pm for safety reasons." He replied "Too bad, I will hire someone else then." Then the next client called several months later and asked to see if I would meet him at the house at 7pm, I said yes because I didn't want to lose a potential client. But what if that client had the wrong intention? What could I've done to prevent putting myself into a dangerous situation?
I want to find out if you have any safety measures to make sure that you will be safe on the consultation? What are things that we could do to protect ourselves?
Here is the article from San Francisco Chronicle:
Rape victim sets up arrest of alleged attacker
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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An Alameda County rape victim pretended to befriend her attacker - going so far as to set up a job interview for him - as part of a ploy to seek revenge, but later decided against vigilante justice and settled for arranging his arrest, authorities said Tuesday.
When the 47-year-old woman's alleged assailant showed up at a coffee shop the day after the attack for his job interview, sheriff's deputies took him into custody.
Howard Moore, 24, of San Leandro was arrested on suspicion of rape, sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson said.
The woman, who works as a real estate agent, was showing a home in Alameda County on Aug. 16 when the prospective buyer attacked her, Nelson said. He declined to say where the incident happened, because that could identify the victim.
The assailant choked the woman, raped and robbed her, Nelson said.
During the attack, the woman started to befriend him "in an attempt to gain his trust," Nelson said.
The woman told him she wasn't going to call the police and would try to help him, Nelson said. She even went as far as to promise to arrange a job interview for a security or bodyguard position the following day.
The woman later told investigators that she had set up the interview so "she could exact vigilante justice on him," Nelson said. "The victim was afraid the suspect would not be sent to prison for the crime."
She ultimately decided to call the sheriff at the urging of a relative who had worked as a police officer, Nelson said.
When Moore showed up for the supposed job interview at a Starbucks in Hayward, he was met by sheriff's deputies, Nelson said.
Moore was recently released from state prison after serving 18 months for robbery, Nelson said.
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