How has watching Unsolved Mysteries changed you?

[U.M. Fanatic]

I know in my case that it has made me a bit more apprehensive about taking walks late at night or driving by myself through very rural areas. (or getting bunk beds through a second hand store )

Anybody more easily spooked than they were before? Do you sometimes check over your shoulder now, when you didn't use to give it a second thought? I can also say that I pay more attention to what other people are doing, while I'm out running errands, etc.

Anybody else?

[Melanie85]

I think I'm smarter about putting myself in positions where I could be attacked (robbed, raped, murdered, etc). Sometimes when I watch UM I can't believe that someone put themselves in a vunerable position for something bad to happen. I guess it's just taught me to watch out for myself and not be so trusty to strangers

[Kane]

I think I have become more sophisticated in how to reduce the possibility of becoming a crime victim, especially that of identity theft. I mean, I remember a 1995 segment about a woman who became an identity theft victim. At the end of the segment, Robert Stack offered some important safety precautions, such as destroying old bank documents. I recall Robert Stack saying to hang up if someone asks you to verify your social security number over the telephone.

Stack couldn't be more right. In fact, I learned to never give any sensitive or confidential information over the phone unless I initiated the contact. And I used that safety tip once. A few years ago, someone contacted me, soliciting a questionable offer related to a magazine. She asked me for my credit card number-unsucessfully! I refused to give it to her, and hung up.

Even if your chances of becoming an ID theft victim are slim to none, it's always smart to take precautions, especially the ones I mentioned. I certainly do.

[Dr. Jazz]

I love the show, but it's made me somewhat paranoid over the years

[UMfan77]

I always lock my house doors and windows at all times. And I lock my car door soon after getting in. When getting in my car, I check the backseats (Gretchen Burford case, I can't imagine the horror she went through).

[Awsi Dooger]

I watch Lifetime

[U.M. Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jazz

I love the show, but it's made me somewhat paranoid over the years

I couldnt agree with you more!

[U.M. Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Awsi Dooger

I watch Lifetime

Bullseye! I almost never watched this channel until they started showing UM.

[U.M. Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Kane

Even if your chances of becoming an ID theft victim are slim to none, it's always smart to take precautions, especially the ones I mentioned. I certainly do.

This is all too true, one of my fellow co-workers had to go through this ordeal a year or two ago. I try to make sure to follow every precaution with regards to personal information.

[dynoguy88]

Like most of you, the Gretchen Burford segment has taught me to ALWAYS lock my car doors. And I still check my back seat before entering my car at night.

I'd also like to think that I'm not as nieve as I was several years ago. The cases have shown me that the world can be a troubling place every so often. You can't trust everyone, you have to be careful.

Thankfully, I have never been in this position but if a loved one ever told me that they were recieving death threats, I wouldn't let them out of my sight and I would make sure to pump them for any information I could. All too often, segments are shown where a person tells their family that they are afraid for their life and they never end up doing anything. Then the person either ends up dead or vanishes without a trace.

[Awsi Dooger]

I gave a flippant response in this thread earlier. It needs to be followed by the actual way Unsolved Mysteries and other true crime shows have changed my point of view over the past 15 years: I am now much more pro-defense, and aware the prosecution can be every bit as misleading and engage in illegal tactics as the slickest defense lawyers. Previously, I was under the ignorant illusion the prosecution was lilly white and always pursued the truth and the real offender at any cost. Now I understand they generally want to put a pathetic check mark next to a case and forget about it, regardless if the correct person(s) has been convicted or not. The examples are too numerous to mention. Even when prosecutors are presented with DNA or other evidence they convicted an innocent person, inevitably they disagree and will go to any length to deny their mistake and keep the person in jail. Of course there are exceptions. Law enforcement in the Lisa Marie Kimmell case, for example, kept at it for 15+ years until the correct person was identified and convicted.

A huge chunk of my cynicism stems from local tactics here in Las Vegas. Many of my friends have been detained, handcuffed and even jailed simply via which slot machine they choose to play. That is not an exaggeration. They choose not to publicize it in shows like "Las Vegas" but it's gone on for years. There are so-called bonus machines that can produce heavy profit with intelligent play at specific times, when the bonus is about to hit. Unknowing tourists abandon the machines on the verge of the bonus. Casino security will literally grab local slot machine players off the bonus machines by force, haul them to the back room and call Las Vegas Metro Police. The police department and specific judges were working in cohorts with the casinos to charge and prosecute those slot players even though they committed no crime. The American Civil Liberties Union finally got involved and has taken on at least 50 cases. There was a huge article in the Las Vegas Review Journal. Finally the casinos hired new lawyers who told them to cease the tactics, and that they had engaged in wrongdoing for years.

Here is another example, the warm and fuzzy Nancy Grace, who would convict a ham sandwich. She was anything but a balanced and fair prosecutor, as you can tell by reading this link, Nancy Grace’s "Extensive Pattern of Inappropriate And … Illegal Conduct": http://wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/001773.html

[Beetlejuice69]

How has Unsolved Mysteries changed my life?

Hhhmmm...

It's made me a better lover.

[rerungirl]

I work in radio and sometimes don't get off work until midnight or later. Until I saw the Matthew Chase segment on UM (college student disappeared after making late night visit to an atm) I would often stop by an atm on my way home. I thought nothing about parking my car in a deserted lot and walking up to the cash machine. Boy, was I foolish! After seeing the story about Matthew Chase (and the stranger who was shadowing him in the bank video) I never go to an atm after dark now...even if it's in a fairly busy area.

[dynoguy88]

That's very smart, rerungirl. Just in case you didn't know, a huge chunk of robberies/attacks happen at ATM's at night. I've read that in an article and seen it discussed on a couple talk shows. Police advice that if you have to withdraw cash at night, try going to an ATM at a grocery store, gas station, mini mall or some place where other people are around. You would be surprised how many robbers lie in wait at bank ATM's at night.

[Kane]

From what some of you (including myself) have discussed on this thread, it is obvious that the show's role in public service is not limited to helping solve cases. In some of its segments, UM has offered safety tips. Of course, I mentioned on this post about how UM has made me more sophisticated in reducing my chances of becoming a victim.

I pointed out the 1995 segment about a woman who became a victim of identity theft. The segment ended with Robert Stack explaining the precautions to take in order to minimize your chances of becoming an ID theft victim.

I neglected to mention another segment that ended with Robert Stack offering safety tips. It was a segment on the 1996 disappearance and murder of Alicia Showalter Reynolds. The unknown man, who is believed to be her killer, is also a suspect in a series assaults. These cases involved a man who would trick them into pulling over by indicating to them that they had car trouble.

At the end of the segment, Robert Stack offered some safety tips in that regard: if you have car trouble, don't get into a car with a stranger who happens by. If your car is operable, drive yourself to safety; otherwise ask someone to call for help.

Thanks to the show, I am more informed about safety tips that involve reducing the possibility of becoming a crime victim. I have never had car trouble, but I'm definitely going to keep the aforementioned safety tips in mind in case I ever do. ;-)