CHARLESTON, WV –‘Tis the season for holiday shopping and, according to one Charleston self-defense instructor, more Christmas-time crooks.

“This time of year it starts getting worse because it’s the holidays,” said Butch Hiles, owner of Butch Hiles’ Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts. “Unfortunately, this time of year kind of brings out people looking for money, looking for easy targets.

Hiles said often times, those easy targets are women carrying shopping bags, looking at their phones or simply not paying attention.

Hiles advises all shoppers: pay attention to your surroundings, lock car doors once you’re inside the vehicle and – if attacked – look to escape.

“I think a lot of times you see fancy things in movies. You can see they’ll do these great moves, but that’s the movies,” Hiles said. “I think that’s the biggest misconception, is that I can just throw one or two punches and then I’m out of there. We also feel like women need to escape more than attack. I’m not saying you never attack, never fight back cause you do sometimes – you don’t want to get hurt – but escape is first and foremost.”

Hiles taught 13 News several key moves to escaping a potential attacker, whether the suspect attacks from behind, from the side or from the front.

Hiles advised, it takes people about a hundred or more practice runs to instinctively execute a move.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA is located on Summers Street in Charleston. They can be reached for lessons at 304-549-9370.