Securing Valuables and Caches

I talked about home defense/ harder homes and gardens and harder homes and gardens for renters not too long ago. The topic of securing and hiding valuables didn't get much attention. I sort of had a specific post in mind. Sat on it for awhile for whatever reason but today  I am tired and feeling pretty blah so a post that is already thought out seemed like a good idea. So to the topic of securing valuables.

A few observations and random things first:

• There is an inherant trade off between security and accessability. Nobody would steal my sweet but probably fairly average 40" flat screen tv if it was hidden in a wall or buried 5 feet underground. On the other hand it would be aweful hard for kiddo to watch cartoons which would make him sad.
• Things you use regularly need to be reasonably accessible.
• It takes a lot more effort to secure stuff that people know you have. OPSEC is a pretty decent security system in and of itself. There is a reason that banks have big vaults, people know they have lots of money.
• Reinforced doors, locks, safe's and such are a deturrent. Somebody with the desire and knowhow will crack any nut if it is worth it to do so, reference bank vaults. However most crooks are not in a house for very long so often a safe that cannot be easily carried off (heavy, mounted or both) will get left alone.
• I am a big fan of keeping ones eggs in multiple baskets as discussed awhile back.
• Caches are a pretty good idea to at least look into. I cannot speak with authority on this but thankfully John Mosby wrote a couple posts about caches which are worth reading.

Anyway I have come to see what I call the "little safe, big safe" concept as the way to go. Keep stuff that you use or will likely use regularly readily accessible but secured. Keep the rest of your stuff secured in a less accessible place, potentially in a wall cache or offsite or in a cache. We will call this your backup stuff. Bear in mind that your backup stuff will need to be stored in a way that it will not be affected by scenarios that could endanger your primary stuff. This could mean very different things depending on the nature of your stuff and the scenarios involved.

Example 1: Sue has a nice stash of cash and precious metals and is a bit concerned about theft or a house fire. Sue decides to keep some of her stash (enough to make a trade or buy something if need be) in the safe where their records and whatever live. Sue took the rest and put it into a piece of PVC pipe and buried it under the right corner of the far left planter in the garden. This works because a fire won't affect it and unless somebody knows it is there that isn't a place folks would look for valuables.

Example 2: Tom lives what we could call a high risk lifestyle. He might need to leave for a month or two on very short notice. He decided to have some stuff ready to go at home as well as some cash. Since going home might not be advisable or even possible he also decided to have another set of stuff and a good portion of the available cash some distance from home. He went out far enough to be away from people who would recognize him and outside of the usual police type cordon, potentially in another jurisdiction.  [A good portion of his total worth is liquid cash and largely represented in these two stashes but well it is a requirement of his lifestyle]

Example 3: Frank is a hard core survivalist. He has a rural 'retreat' and very ample stores of food and fuel as well as a lot of guns and case after case of ammo. He realized that having all this stuff in his basement and barn is a bad idea. He owns a decent piece of land and is near some timber lands which won't be logged again for decades and are without development prospects. He keeps about 40% of their supplies at home. The rest get divided up into several caches. The nearest is a bit more a half mile from the house. Far enough that if they were overrun and the house was occupied by some gobline they could sneek in and grab the concents, at least if it was vital. The other caches range from a mile away to an old homestead about 25 miles away that is their alternate location.

Example 4: John sees himself as a potential Guerilla. He envisions a pretty dark future. He thinks the Chinese are going to invade and he is going to have to fight them. He keeps some survivalist stuff at home but has a lot more spread out. The guy has small E and E type caches in several locations as well as larger logistical resupply caches at potential basecamps. The range of his caches is pretty broad. Within this circle are his home, a couple small cities and a decent sized town, a regional line of communication and some nice good places to hold up. Geography dictates the exact range but it is about a 60 mile across mis shapen circle.

Discussion: While the broad principles of keeping some stuff with you and spreading the rest out stay the same the implimentation varies considerably based on one's concerns.

Sue and Tom are both securing compact valuables. However that Sue is concerned about a burglar or a house fire means her valuables could be 50 feet away from the house while that obviously wouldn't work for Tom. Needing to dig up the garden for running money because somebody is after you wouldn't work. A locked dusty trunk in the back of a semi abandoned barn at a your second aunt once removed Sue's farm 60 miles away would fit Tom's better.

It is similar for Frank and John. Both are spreading out beans, bullets and bandaids. Frank's caches are predominantly within reasonable walking distance from his home (why do folks have to always call it a 'retreat' anyway) as his ideal situation is to stay home and raid them as needed. He has one further off in case things become untenable at his current location. John knows that if the scenario he envisions kicks of he will have to leave home and move intermittently for the foreseeable future. He may be moving by vehicle though the circle is small enough that you could do it on foot.

Also Frank keeps a lot more stuff at home than John. Due to their different plans Frank has about half his stuff at home while John has about a quarter. This is representative of his primary plan being to stay at the 'retreat' versus John's plan to bail almost immediately if hostilities occur. John realizes that in the scenario that concerns him leaving on short notice by vehicle is about the best scenario, running into the woods with rucksack's is middle of the road and running into the woods in sleepwear is also quite possible. Frank's house has dozens of guns while John's has his carry piece, a defensive rifle, a hunting rifle, a shotgun, a .22, and backup pistol. Franks pantry probably has 6 month's worth of food in it while John's has about a month and a half. 

Well those are my thoughts on that. Criticism or input is welcome. I hope somebody finds this helpful.