Posted on February 14, 2009
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Guest post by Grandpa, Editor-in-Chief at ByeByeBigBrother.com
Maybe you can’t stand endlessly locking everything. A PT takes sensible precautions and tries to have a minimum in visible valuable possessions that might be coveted by others.
The degree of care you exercise should be logically related to the value [to you] involved. If you don’t own anything portable and valuable or anything that you don’t mind losing, then you just don’t have anything to worry about. That would be the ideal state of things for a PT (no Priceless Things!) However, most of us will still want to maintain some homes and possessions.
YOUR HOME IS YOUR CASTLE
Every residence should be penetration proof. Only residents should be able to come and go at will. This means there must be a security system and security procedures which will vary with single or multi-unit dwellings.
The consequences of having the wrong person know your residential address can be deadly. Just ask Rebecca Schaefer, or rather, her heirs. When Schaefer, a California actress, answered the door to her home several years ago, she found one of her ‘fans’ pointing a gun at her. She died from the gunshot wounds he inflicted.
Her assailant had merely walked into the California Department of Motor Vehicles, looked up her residential address and, with that information paid, her a fatal visit. Rule number one: never give your true address (where you sleep at night) to anyone, least of all the government!
While US law – recently upheld by the Supreme Court – now requires state motor vehicles departments to limit disclosure of vehicle registration and driver’s license records, these records are just one of the many databases now available on the Internet. Such records may contain your home address and even so-called ‘unlisted’ telephone numbers.
Moral of the story: keep the place you sleep of all records – public or private.
BURGLARY PREVENTION
One idea suggested in an earlier PT book is to have a laminated, screwed on plaque notice of ‘Poison Gas Protection’ with a skull and crossbones prominently displayed Some people have such notices on their front doors and accessible windows. Same for apartment building basement storage rooms – especially if you keep any good wine in storage areas open to strangers.
Seems like a good idea. A friend of ours got the same effect by posting a notice as follows: “DANGER! Poisonous Reptile Pets Guard This House. Visitors: Entering property after reading notice absolves owner of any legal responsibility for injury. Be Careful to Keep All Doors and Windows Closed to Prevent Escape of Deadly Snakes.”
[If you were a burglar would you force open a door with this notice? Or would you go on to the next one?]
DOGS
Besides that, noisy, barking dogs are proven to be very effective deterrents. A medium-to-large sized dog with a deep voice is excellent. Pets, however, don’t really fit the PT lifestyle in other ways of course. They are anything but portable.
SAFES
It’s a good idea for every PT to install a safe in any property he or she visits regularly. This will be very useful not just for securing valuables, but also for securing confidential papers from the prying eyes of domestic help or people who use the property while you are away. If well concealed, it can even protect sensitive papers and valuables from raids by Big Brother.
We don’t recommend keeping sensitive documents in your regular, well known home, of course. But a little safe-house that is not linked to you, perhaps rented in the name of a foreign girlfriend, can be an ideal storage place – and the safe will prevent the girlfriend or her family from prying!
Probably the most practical safe is a relatively small built-in wall safe, just large enough to hold A4 or 8 1/2 x 11 paper together with a few watches, pieces of jewellery etc.
Most robbers who break into ordinary houses are opportunists. Few will have the skills or equipment with them for safe-cracking. That said, it is still advisable to conceal any safe as far as possible.
Simply hanging a picture or poster over it is better than nothing. But as this ploy is well known, we recommend that you do something a bit more imaginative. If people are unaware of the existence of a safe, they rarely bother to look behind closet wall coverings or under wall-to-wall carpets. The least expected places are the best places for hiding things or safes. For example, I have seen safes in bathrooms, cunningly disguised as electrical mains plugs or part of the plumbing. Under the bathtub could be a good place. If you have a garage, storage room or basement workshop, why not anchor your safe in a wall niche or concrete floor outside of the living area? You could conceal it with a sheet of linoleum or a loose covering of leaves or broken pot shards. Use your creativity.
What should you not do? Don’t hide your valuables under the mattress or pillows. Don’t keep stuff in your bed-table, bedroom closet or under the bed. That’s the first place burglars look. Good temporary storage for cash might be well wrapped in a plastic container marked ‘Boiled Mackerel’ in your freezer.
AVOID HABITS AND ROUTINES
This is one of the most important aspects of personal security, both at home and whilst travelling. Studies of rapists, muggers, assassins, robbers and kidnappers prove the incredible dangers posed by merely living and moving about in a predictable way.
Use common sense. A wealthy celebrity or business executive in Colombia or Russia will need to take extreme precautions. If you live in crime-free Monaco you can let your guard down – a bit.
Alter your routine. Avoid predictability of movement. Do grocery shopping sometimes on Wednesday if the usual day is Saturday. Vary your lunch times and eating places. Don’t visit the bank, post office, etc., every day at exactly the same time.
When leaving home base, notify a trusted person of your destination. Make a second phone call to verify your safe arrival.
Arrange code words to alert your wife or a friend of trouble by phone. Adopt silent emergency signals. The cash room of a major department store has the following code system. The supervisor regularly greets incoming employees with a cheery “Hello.” The response must be a bright, “Hello to you, Mr. Powers.” If the response is anything else, the supervisor knows he should take immediate emergency measures.
Police say victims of crimes are often accomplices in their own demise. Private security consultants caution customers that imprudent or showy conduct is the catalyst in random criminal activity.
YOUR SAFETY CHECKLIST
Your safety checklist should include a check of cosmetic features. Do you consistently overdress for surroundings? Do you wear inappropriate or unnecessary jewelry? These are signposts to criminals seeking a target. Avoid flashing inordinate amounts of cash or wallets filled with offshore credit cards. Carry only cash you need and don’t flash a roll of bills. Use the credit card you need and keep the others safely concealed. A minimum conscious effort provides great personal security by denying criminals information.
CONVERSATIONS
Personal or cell phone conversations should be conducted in a quiet voice (or at a distance from others) so they are unintelligible to eavesdroppers nearby. Maintain a moderate appearance and keep your general demeanor conservative. Don’t negate your privacy with loose conversation.
Professional criminals can make out like bandits by capitalizing on information from overheard conversations.