Melanie Collins has come up with some safety guidelines to protect all women who may be alone on the road.
Television sportscaster Melanie Collins has her own safety regimen when traveling for work.
To avoid the humiliation that befell fellow reporter Erin Andrews, who was videotaped through a peephole in her hotel room, Collins has a list of precautions she practices when she’s on the road.
Read: Juror in Erin Andrews Trial: 'What I Saw Is A Very Real, Very Powerful Woman
She shared them with Inside Edition.
“Always be prepared,” she said. Always be on guard. Always have something you can use as a weapon, even if it’s just a pen.”
When checking into a hotel, she advises, make sure no one overhears your room number.
“If the front desk clerk would say my room number out loud, and I knew that there were other people standing at the front desk I would kind of back off into the lobby and wait until those people cleared the desk and then I would go back and ask to change my room,” she said.
Read: Erin Andrews Makes First Appearance Since Winning $55 Million in Peeping Tom Case
In an elevator, she waits for others to push their floor buttons first. “And if there’s ever a man who gets off on the same floor as me, I’ll kind of step off and make sure they go ahead of me, so they’re not following me to whatever room I’m going to,” she said.
Once inside, she takes out the roll of tape she always carries and tapes over the door’s peephole.
You don’t need to be famous to be cautious, Collins says.
Watch: Hotel Exec Watched Erin Andrews Naked in Restaurant After Court
