Be prepared to defend yourself from different types of looters

By oliviacook // 2024-02-28

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Preparing for when it all goes wrong also means preparing for different kinds of looters. Looters are a diverse bunch – with some posing a bigger threat than others. You need to understand what brings them out to outsmart them.

Desperate people

Potential looters won't necessarily be criminal elements. In periods of natural disasters or civil chaos, they come out in desperation to survive and feed their families. While it is easy to sympathize with them – especially when you think they could have been you and your family – you will need to be wary of them because they are unpredictable and highly likely to become violent.

Opportunistic looters

Any time large groups of angry, disgruntled people gather spontaneously – to protest or join social movements – property damage and looting are common. These people will steal just about anything that is not bolted to the ground that they want and can carry. Many of them aren't "mastermind-level" criminals but simply follow the "mob" looking for an "easy score" of "free" stuff. When the "mob mentality" sets in, some people may begin to compromise their ethics because everyone else is doing it.

Your fake "friends"

"Hiding in plain sight" may be people within your community, including your "friendly neighbor" who knows you are a prepper with a mindset of proactively stocking up on essentials for any uncertainty. You will want to limit people's ability to see your goods – your survival garden, water tanks, etc. No one needs to know how you and your family have prepared well before any crisis starts.

Protect your home from looters with 4Ds

Here are some tips to protect your home from looters shared by crisis management professional and retired Navy Seal Clint Emerson.

Deter

Make it look like someone is always home. You can lean a skateboard or bicycle up against the wall near your front door – even if you don't have kids. Make your pooch your family and your home's protector-in-chief, or at the very least a doggy deterrent to an intruder. If you don't have dogs, pretend to. Put up "Beware of Dog" stickers or signs to allude that you have dogs on your premises. Give the illusion of robust security. Present the illusion of having robust security with simple alarm stickers on your windows or even a security sign in your front yard.

Detect

Get a security system. There's a wide selection of battery-powered or solar-charged wireless intruder alarm systems that require no power and are designed for easy DIY installation. Some of them are pretty high quality and reasonably priced. This also reduces your dependence on having some technician install them for you. Place cameras in areas for the highest quality images. You can also check out solar security cameras or those that are outdoor rechargeable battery-operated ones that work well without power cables. Make sure you put them in strategic locations that get the proper field of view and ID quality of your intruders. You can get motion detector lights to know if someone's lurking outside because you're inside your home. Since power outages are likely to occur during any kind of disaster, make sure you install the kind that runs on rechargeable batteries or solar power.

Deny

Always keep your garage pedestrian door locked just to be safe. Get a solid core or aluminum door if your budget permits. You may also replace all door screws with 3 ½ wood screws and anchor down the hinge points. Then move to the other side of the door and replace the striker plate and all the screws holding the lock in place with 3 ½ inch wood screws to reinforce the integrity of all those things that are keeping people out. Add 3 ½ wood screws on the locking side into your door frame itself about every foot up and down the door from the strike plate. So now, when the bad guy kicks your door in, it's probably going to take him five to 10 times, depending on his strength, because you reinforced it – adding time on your side. Install protective window film. There are films sold commercially that won't easily crack or break and even actually stop bullets and are pretty low-cost as well.

Defend

Prepare a tactical nightstand. Have everything readily available next to you – a flashlight, a weapon, your car keys to sound your car alarm, a fully-charged cellphone and anything else that can cause or inflict pain against a bad guy at a distance. Just make sure the weapons you choose are those you are comfortable with and that you know how to use them because the last thing you want is intruders taking them away from you and using them against you. If you are in a fight, fight for your life. Your violence has to be equal or greater than your adversaries so give it everything you've got. Make sure you keep your wits about you. The goal is to inflict pain, incapacitate, knock them out or whatever it takes so that you can get distance between you and the bad guy – and away from your family. Increased distance, increases survivability. (Related: Own a gun, kill a home intruder, get paid leave? Here’s how.) Keep your family emergency exit plan simple. Have a meeting place inside and outside – rally points where everyone in the family is going to consolidate if you get separated. Pre-plan your routes to the meeting point – agree on primary and secondary routes to your designated rally point, which sometimes include climbing out a window. No one likes a looter, and hopefully, you and your family never has to face one. So, harden your heart and your home, and be prepared to fight when necessary. Find the right preparedness and survival tools for you at the Health Ranger Store. Learn to have a plan and survive looters by watching this video. This video is from the Local Prepper channel on Brighteon.com.

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