A discovery

My kind of woman completely - this is one smart and tough mama :-)

Story:
Canada -- A Moose Jaw woman credits the Discovery Channel with saving her life after tips she learned on a program about shark attacks helped her fend off an intruder who broke into her apartment in Medicine Hat.

The 27-year-old female was alone in her home around 4:30 p.m. March 25 when she was confronted by a man armed with a crowbar, duct tape and handcuffs.

"I poked him in the eye like you do to a shark that’s attacking you," she said. "I was also trying to fish-hook my fingers inside his lips because I know that hurts. I scratched his hands really good and got as much of my blood on him as possible because I knew he’d have to have my DNA on him and I’d have to have his DNA on me for there to be any evidence."

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Multiple strategies

Research has clearly shown that your odds increase if you use multiple strategies in defending yourself. Here's a great example.
I would also like to praise this young woman for her will to fight back, and by doing so, getting this perpetrator off the streets.

Story:
California -- A 33-year-old man, whose injuries matched those inflicted by a woman on an attacker who attempted to rape her, was arrested Tuesday.

On Saturday at approximately 3:45 p.m. a man entered a model home and asked the 19-year-old woman working there if he could use the bathroom.

The man exited the bathroom and after mumbling a few words to the victim, lunged at her, grabbing her by the neck.

As she fought back, the young woman was thrown into a back office where her pants were ripped as the attacker attempted to remove them.

Fighting the attacker off, she managed to dial 911 on a desk phone and her screams were heard. The man ripped the phone from the wall but the call was responded to by Apple Valley deputies.

They found the woman bleeding and suffering from injuries to the head and neck. She had stopped her attacker by kicking and scratching him. She had also bit the attacker’s index finger before he fled.

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Do the twist

Canada -- A 21-year-old student at the York University was walking home when she was attacked.

"He was standing behind the tree and I didn't see him because it was pretty dark and he just stepped out from behind the tree and he said don't scream, and he pushed me to the ground," she recalls.

"I grabbed his pinky finger and I twisted it back and he pulled away from me because I hurt him and I ran to my house."

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'Swordid'

The old saying 'never bring a sword to a gunfight' turns out to be bad advice – at least for Guillermo Tovar, who survived being held at gunpoint in his own house when he cut the gunman's trigger finger off before he could fire.

The gunmen broke in to Tovar's east Memphis house in the small hours of the morning on November 4. They kicked down his front door, pointed a gun at his son's head and demanded cash and jewelery, before pistol-whipping Tovar unconscious.

It was when Tovar came to that things got interesting. He grabbed a sword from underneath the couch - described as a cavalry-type sabre, which the household used for cutting vegetation in the garden – and confronted the burglars. With a gun pointed at him and the intruder's finger already on the trigger, Tovar swung the sword – cutting the man's trigger finger off.

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Blending

Here's a great example of what we refer to as blinding or blending. It involves impairing the attacker's vision by the use of hands/fingers, spit, coins, sand, spray, liquids, flames or similar.
This has been used over and over again to get a potential victim out of a tight spot. It can be used to get free from a hold, to set up another technique like takedown, punch or kick, or to make sure you can escape safely.

Story:
A 50-year-old woman fended off an attack by a 43-year-old convicted sex offender on a Santa Cruz beach by throwing sand in his eyes on Tuesday, Santa Cruz police said today.

The woman told police the man had chatted with her briefly before he allegedly pushed her down on the ground and forced himself on top of her.

The woman, who was alone on the beach, said she warded him off by screaming and throwing sand in his face, police reported.

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