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I live in a safe neighborhood in a town with a below-average crime rate, so I don’t really have to worry about burglars. However, I still have a lot of home security measures in place, and for two reasons:
1) Better safe than sorry. Just because there isn’t much crime in my area doesn’t mean I’ll never be robbed. And 2) Crime will skyrocket after the SHTF. This is my main concern. Most people only have a few days of food in their homes. When it’s all gone, some of them will start looting their neighbor’s homes. Hunger can turn regular people into animals.
If someone manages to get past all of my home security measures, I’d like to be able to tell them that I don’t have any food or supplies left. Hopefully, they will give up looking and move on. But that will only happen if I have some very good hiding spots.
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In this video, Penny University suggests 10 hiding spots for your valuables. Here are his suggestions:
1. In survival caches. Hide them all over your property or along your bug out route.
2. Under your bathroom sink. Put your valuables in a box of Tampons or other inconspicuous containers.
3. In your kitchen. There are many nooks and crannies you can turn into hiding spots. For example, you could create a false back in a cabinet.
4. Above drop ceilings. It’s very easy to hide items on the tiles in the ceiling. Just be careful as they will only hold so much weight.
5. Inside false wall compartments. Build removable panels into the wall behind paintings or in the back of closets.
6. Below a trap door in the floor. You could fit a lot of things underneath the floor if your home has a crawl space.
7. Inside air ducts. Try attaching items to a cord so you can pull them all out of the duct when you need them.
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8. Behind a fake air vent. Just cut a hole in the wall and place an air vent over it.
9. In the attic. Create a hidden compartment in your attic behind the insulation.
10. Inside false PVC piping. Most people would never think to check inside pipes.
11. In a repurposed crawlspace. There is a lot of extra space down there.
12. Under the stairs. There is a lot of unused space under staircases.
Watch the video below for pictures of these hiding spots and more details about them.
Bottom of a dirty diaper pail might work.
Behind a baseboard.
Behind the toilet tank.
Magnet mount under a table.
Inside a REAL TV.
Also, best to NOT have paper towels and such easy to get. Thieves use those to hide their fingerprints.
One could set a bait for the thieves.
A little something they can grab and go, thus not destroying your house to find hidden things?
If they are looking for food, put some expired food in the cabinet while you hide your good food elsewhere.
Thieves aren’t looking at expiration dates! LOL
A little costume jewelry in the wife’s jewelry box, hiding the rest elsewhere.
Maybe a little cash on the night stand (find out how much a hit of crack sells for in your neighborhood and leave slightly more than that out). Reason – many thieves want drug money. If they can get it quick, they might be gone quick to get that fix.
Maybe leave the cash in a large jar, but in pennies?
Makes it heavy and bulky.
If you have a lot of books, you can hide a few bills between the pages but not enough to see when the book is closed.
Take an empty Rx bottle and fill it with non time release Niacin tablets, 50mg or bigger.
Let them steal that. When they take a bunch, lol, they will wish they hadn’t.
Won’t typically kill anyone though.
You can hide some things in old WORK BOOTS LOL
If you have a ceiling light that uses a globe, and SHTF and there is no power, unscrew the light bulb and hide valuables in the globe, putting the globe back on.
Attic heat is bad for many things. Not the best place to store certain things like food or ammo.
Another place is underneath a refrigerator (depending on the item and if you have power or not.
Hiding in plain sight is best most of the time.
While many are good ideas, the tampon box is well known. For us it would be in some of my husband’s catch-all boxes in the garage – even I won’t go looking in boxes of mixed fasteners or ‘just in case’ bits of wire, plumbing supplies, etc. We do keep cash in the bottom of 5 lb pails of wheat (the wheat is in mylar bags) and feel it’s safe – takes too long to haul out the pail from the back of the closet, unscrew the lid, lift out the wheat. Thieves want grab and go.
We’ve had a spate of thefts from unlocked cars (yes, people are stupid) and they take easily used or sold items – cash, phones, ipads, wallets, purses and even guns. Police say thieves always go for the quick to grab whether from a car or a house.
The purpose of the article is to get you to think outside the box when it comes to hiding valuables, as well as offering some suggestions. The average time a burglar spends in a house is under 15 minutes, so making valuables difficult to find to find is the best answer. Avoiding the obvious locations someone will look (drawers, refrigerator/freezer and so forth).
Those hiding spots are all very good! What if your house is made of concrete? No crawl spaces, no vents, no under the stairs, no attic, no basement.….
Can’t have the wife digging in the yard for her jewelry every time we go somewhere.
I hate to tell my secret but I’ll share with you. I hide some of my valuables in the pockets of close I don’t wear. Either in the closet or drawers. Thrives aren’t going to go through every pocket
I also put paper money inside record albums
Apparently the thieves are reading all these articles too! Just the other day there was an article about a couple who returned home to find their home completely ransacked! The police said they had never seen such a messy robbery. The thieves had apparently read about the hiding places in the vents ( or fake vents ), the refrigerator and freezer items were all scattered on the floor, the bookcases had been emptied of every book ( looking for a book safe, furniture was turned over, lids off of the toilet tanks and everything in drawers was removed and dumped. All clothes in closets were strewn about as well as shoes and boots. The thieves looked everywhere in the house that you read about as to being a “great” hiding place for money, jewelry, and weapons. The only safe place to hide anything is off of your property!
If you are creative enough, a mouse or rat trap might give them something to think about.
Ever have one snap on your fingers?
If you do not have rugs or carpet, a bunch of Lego;s scattered about on the floor (assuming no power) makes things challenging.
If you can wax your floors well enough to make it very slippery, that too might make things more difficult.
Inside electrical outlets (be safe doing this).
Inside the garbage disposal (make sure the switch is OFF)
Remember, when SHTF, power is usually the first thing to go.
Many thieves only have a flashlight or lighter and cannot see details in the dark as well.
With educational videos like this that are accessible to everyone including thieves, how can one think they can hide their valuables and no one would find them? This video provides a list of the FIRST places to look, I think.
Kay,
If you reread the article you will see that some of the ideas do have merit. Burglars don’t want to spend too much time going through an entire house. The false p.v.c. pipe is actually a very good idea. Find a spot in your home that has similar type plumbing ,and add some extra piping to it. Just don’t make the add on start or end in an odd way, go floor to ceiling if need be.
There are some good ideas here . Sort out the ones that would work for your situation.