ATM Fraud

Remembering a 2007 Tony Blauer self-defense video, four people use acting to devalue themselves as targets and avoid physical confrontations.

Glory Dawson had finished her waitressing shift and was headed home when she remembered she needed to deposit a check. Dawson went to an ATM, put her card into the machine and saw four men walking toward her. They surrounded her.

“How much money you got in there?” one of them asked.

“I didn’t turn around, I didn’t look at them, I just had this second of, ‘Oh my gosh. What do I do?’” Dawson said.

Then Dawson remembered the “devalue” technique from Blauer’s CrossFit Defense class. She hit cancel and started screaming at the ATM, yelling about having no money and flailing around in what was essentially a foul-mouthed temper tantrum.

“I screamed, ‘I can’t believe that motherfucking bastard took all my money,’” Dawson said.

The men backed away. One of them said, “Oh, she’s crazy,” as they disappeared. Dawson got in her car and drove home, safe.

Blauer has spent most of his life coaching, researching and studying fights, but he goes out of his way to teach people how to avoid them. One of the key self-defense skills Blauer teaches has nothing to do with kicks or punches. It has to do with devaluing yourself as a victim so the potential attacker never becomes the actual attacker.

“Win the fight by not having one,” Blauer said.