Elevators
Elevators, particularly self-service elevators in lightly guarded or unguarded buildings, can be and have been virtual death traps.
ALWAYS: Try to use the elevator when someone you know is also on board.
NEVER: Get into the elevator when the indicator shows that it is going down to the basement, when you want to go up!
1 Don’t take the elevator alone to the basement to use the washing machines. If you can only arrange to do this on week-ends, let the laundry wait until then. If it is at all possible, never go alone to laundry areas, storage rooms, etc. in the basement of your apartment building. Arrange to go with a roommate or neighbor for mutual protection.
2 If your building doesn’t have an attended elevator, insist that your landlord install a lock on the basement elevator door. Keys for the lock should be issued only to tenants. With such a lock, no one who gains admittance to the basement will be able to ride up on the elevator; any tenant who must go to the basement via elevator, however, can open the lock.
3 When you get into an elevator from the lobby floor, always press the button for your floor while you are holding the elevator door open. If the indicator light or arrow then points “up,” let the door close. But, if you notice that the “down” signal flashes when you
press your floor button, it could mean that a person in the basement has heard the door open and wants to bring the car (and you) down. In that case, get out. Be alert as to what happens when the car goes down, then try again.
4 Should the elevator reach your floor, and you see a stranger or suspicious-looking person inside, don’t get in. Let the elevator take him wherever he is going, and you wait until the next trip.
5 If you are already in the elevator when someone you don’t know, or who seems potentially troublesome, gets on board, shift position quickly so that you are near the control panel and place your hand over the alarm button. If you are annoyed in any way, press that alarm-and keep pressing it as long as you have to!
6 When coming home alone late at night, don’t linger in the lobby to look in the mirror, pick up your mail, etc. Get upstairs and into your apartment quickly.
7 Always have your key in your hand when coming in. Don’t fumble for it in the elevator or in front of your apartment door.