We are seeing a lot of looting in our cities presently. Once the stores are out of food and supplies, it is almost inevitable that looting will start happening in homes. Remember that this could be out of necessity or pure anger and rebellion. Knowing how to prepare your house against looters is essential, no matter the reason.
Related: Non-Lethal Ways to Defend Your Home
What Do Looters Want?
You may find yourself wondering why looters loot or what they may want. Why would they want to loot your home? These are questions that don’t have an easy answer. Sometimes, looting happens out of necessity because of a lack of resources. However, sometimes it happens because there are just bad people.
Looting is also known as sacking, ransacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging. It is the theft of goods by force, military, political victory, or during a catastrophe such as war or uprising. Looters want whatever they can get their hands on: food, water, things they can sell, resources, and any supplies you have.
Related: Sneaky Places to Hide Your Valuables
Will Showing the World You Will Fight Put You in More Danger?
This is another tricky question. But the bottom line is that you can defend your home more successfully if you are prepared. In some circumstances, being too showy about it can draw attention and make an attack more likely.
If people know you’re defending something of value, they may be attracted to your home and try to get what you’re trying to protect.
If you live out in the boonies, you can turn your home into a fortress and nobody will know. And, anyone stumbling upon it could be in for a nasty surprise.
But you must be more careful if you live in a very populated area. Giving your house a Stalingrad look will annoy your neighbors and draw attention to looters. So you must prepare your home for looters without too many visible changes.
How to Prepare Your House Against Looters
I want to educate you on how to prepare your home against looters, but I also DO NOT want to generate a political stance on this. The bottom line is that this can and does happen at any time or any point in our lives. I want you to know what to do, how to prevent it, and how to protect your home.
Secure the Area Around Your Home
Your home will be a target if it looks easy to get into. You can’t protect yourself or your home if you can’t secure the area around it. The trick is to ensure the area around your home is not visible to your neighbors or looters.
Get an Alarm System
Many people are getting devices that “film” people at the front door. Well, that’s fine, but what about the sides of your yard and people jumping a fence to get to your backyard, where your neighbors would not see them?
If the looters cut the wires to your wired security system, you may want to install a REAL Security System with a battery backup. The doorbell device may slow looters but will not protect your property. I have the “Ring” wireless camera/motion system. It alerts me when someone is within so many yards of every side of my home.
Lighting
Nothing scares off people more than a LOT of lighting around a home. Keep your front porch and back porch lights on whenever possible every night.
Your Windows
The first thing you want to do is work out the dead ground around your home. So, anywhere you can’t see from at least one of your windows is a vulnerable spot. These are the locations where looters can try their assault. So, you need to shore up these areas.
Let the areas between windows grow up with brambles. Place a low wire entanglement with short stakes and barbed wire where you let the grass grow to conceal it.
You can also buy a window covering that’s pretty inexpensive to “help” prevent your windows from being broken by a chair or large object. It’s called a window security film. Now, let’s be clear here: It’s not an armored car set up, so to speak.
I heard from a reader who uses it on all of her windows because it helps during an earthquake, so less glass shatters everywhere. It still broke, but it was easier to clean up. In other words, it may stop the glass from becoming projectiles. I highly recommend getting the higher 8-12 mil thick safety film.
Remember that it is a security safety film, not a window, as you see at your local bank drive-through. Most of those are bulletproof. This security safety film is not bulletproof, but it may discourage a looter from trying to get into your home because it may take longer to break through your windows.
Time is critical if we are trying to slow the looters down. They may move on to another home down the street that is easier to access if your home is too difficult to get into. Here is the eight mil: BDF S8MC Window Film Security and Safety Clear 8 Mil
An Alert
The next thing you want to do is be alerted when there is an intruder. These things may not be obvious, but they can deter looters and ensure you know when to be on the defense. You need a noisemaker, whether it’s a flock of geese, a dog, or just some old cans strung on a wire.
You need something that tells you someone is there. Keep it normal and don’t draw attention to it.
Related: Camera Security Alert System
Fences
Many people have privacy fences, too, so this won’t be too obvious. Fences can deter people from entering because they make it more difficult. It will not stop them, but will be another obstacle and a perfect place to hide your alert.
If you can fence your property, this is another way to hide what you have, what you are doing, and any other preparations you don’t want your neighbors to see.
Prepare for a Fire
Here are some interesting facts about regular fire extinguishers at home, in the garage, or the car. All fire extinguishers are labeled with special labels to identify the classification of fuel for which the extinguisher is effective:
1. Class A Fires: Ordinary combustibles like paper, cloth, wood, rubber, and many plastics.
2. Class B Fires: Flammable liquids like oil, gasoline, charcoal lighter, kerosene.
3. Class C Fires: These are caused by energized electrical equipment like wiring or motors. Once the electricity is turned off, they become Class A fires.
4. Class D Fires: Combustible metals like aluminum, magnesium, or titanium.
When purchasing a fire extinguisher, it is essential to identify the type of fuel you are defending against to select the extinguisher that will be best for your situation and do the job correctly.
Many preppers will screen their windows with chicken wire to reduce the risk of someone burning their house down with a Molotov cocktail, but this approach is going to be obvious. So, to keep things discreet, you may want to accept the risk of fires. This means being ready to put them out! Here is what you need to stock:
- Fire blankets and gloves for every room
- Buckets of sand
- Fire Extinguishers
- A LONG garden hose with a sprayer
- Related: CERT to Help Your Community
Prepare Your Home for a Siege
A siege is where either looters or military personnel surround your home for an extended period. At this time, you can’t leave the four walls of your home to get supplies without the possibility of getting shot at.
Historically, sieges end with a fortress being surrendered or successfully stormed. With looters, this doesn’t apply. Anyone attacking you when chaos happens is after your supplies or control of your home.
So, if you make it a challenging target, the looters will eventually move on to look for easier pickings, but it could last several days. These days, you need supplies in your home, NOT in your garage or outside your home.
The key to holding out during a siege is to hold out for that vital couple of days. You must add up your supplies and determine what counts inside your defense perimeter.
You will have to rely on this while waiting out the siege. So, it doesn’t matter if you have a well in your yard with unlimited clean water; if you can’t reach it without getting shot at, you have lost your fortress.
Water is your main priority. You can live several days without food, but you need water. Here are the most important things to have as close to you as possible:
- Water
- Food
- Medicine
- Fire prevention supplies
- First Aid Kit
- Weapons and Protection
- Related: How to Store Water for Drinking and Cooking
- Related: Canned Foods I Highly Recommend You Store
Weapons and Protection
I know preppers who are all for guns and weapons, and I know others who are entirely against them. This is not something I have ever talked about on my blog, but I feel like it is a necessary topic at this crazy time.
We all know good people who have weapons; it’s a fact of life. The truth of the matter is that the bad people will have weapons of some kind as well. So, in many cases, you will also need weapons to defend yourself. If there is any chance of your home becoming a target, you will want to have the inside of your home protected.
This preparation doesn’t only include having the weapons, but also knowing how to use them. This includes knowing what windows you would use as firing positions if using a gun, and where non-combatant family members should go for protection and safety.
Sandbags are good protection for windows, but you can also use heavy furniture and stacks of books to prevent looters from shooting into your home.
If you want to protect your home with guns, be sure you know how to shoot. Take gun classes, go to a shooting range, and have someone teach you gun safety. Teach everyone in your home gun safety.
Weapons you can have available include:
- Shotguns
- Handguns
- Extra bullets( ammo)
- Swords
- Bow and Arrows
- Knives
- Wooden baseball bats
Final Thoughts: How to Prepare Your House Against Looters
Sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures. You can prepare your home physically all you want, but at the end of the day, you may have to use weapons to protect yourself and your supplies. Be prepared. Be vigilant. Be ready. Know How to Prepare Your House Against Looters.
The best thing you can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best! Do you know how to Prepare Your House Against Looters? What other ways have you prepared your house for this situation? Let us know in the comments below! Please keep prepping, we must. May God bless this world, Linda
Copyright Images: Looters AdobeStock_226202181 by AnimaFlora PicStock, Fire Extinguishers Deposit photos_165158282_s-2019
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