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Twisted Avatar | 12-30-2008 05:25 PM
Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Condition White Mindset First and foremost is an almost universal Condition White mindset. This refers to the Cooper situational awareness color code for "unaware and unprepared". The vast majority of the urban and suburban population spends 90% of their daytime hours in Condition White. They do a lot of idiotic things, like failing to keep their doors locked at all times, and failing to keep loaded guns handy. Most folks lock their doors only just before retiring each evening. So most daytime and early evening home invasion robbers simply stroll in to unlocked houses and catch the occupants flat-footed. By adopting condition yellow as your norm, and by taking the appropriate security measures, you will tremendously lessen you vulnerability to violent crime, including home invasions. Architectural Weakness Secondly, 150 years of relative peace, stability, low crime rates, and cheap energy have worked together to push American residential architecture toward very vulnerable designs. Modern American homes are essentially defensive disasters. They have huge expanses of glass, they lack barred windows or european-style security/storm shutters, they lack defensible space, and they often have no barriers for the approach of vehicles. Another ill-conceived innovation is the prevalence of floor plans that situate the master bedroom at the opposite end of the house from the children's bedrooms. For the past 25 years, one of the hallmarks of "bad neighborhoods" in the US has been the prevalence of barred windows and beefed-up doors. These are neighborhoods where the prevailing crime rates have pushed the majority of the population into Condition Yellow as a full time baseline mindset. Given the upswing in crime rates that will undoubtedly accompany the coming depression, I wish that everyone in the ostensibly "good neighborhoods" had this same outlook. I don't find it all surprising that criminal gangs now specifically target wealthy suburbs for home invasions, for two reasons: A.) That is where the good stuff is, and B.) These residents are sheep for the slaughter (given the prevailing condition white mindset.) One of the most chronic defensive lapses is American suburban architecture is exterior door design. Typically, entrance doors either have widows immediately adjacent, or set into the doors themselves. Even worse is the ubiquitous sliding glass door. Nothing more than a brick or a paving stone tossed through the glass and bingo, instant access for home invaders, with the fringe benefit of instant fright and surprise for the occupants just inside, who will likely be startled by the crashing noise and flying glass. SWAT and MOUT trainers call this a form of "dynamic entry". There are umpteen variations. You may recall the use of a piece of patio furniture in Robert DeNiro's dynamic entry of Van Zant's house in in the movie Heat. Another is the vigorous application of a 5- or 6-foot length of steel pipe or a more specialized tool, in (the proven "break and rake" technique preferred by the British SAS and SFOD-D (commonly called "Delta Team") to quickly clear any protruding shards of glass). America in the Near Future = Welcome to South Africa In South Africa, the crime rate has been so high for so long that it has changed the way that people live in a day-to-day basis. Every stranger is viewed with extreme suspicion. Automobile drivers regularly refuse to pull over if they are involved in a minor traffic collision, for fear that it is a pretext for a car jacking. Threat Escalation and Proactive Countermeasures Modern military planners often talk in terms of threat spirals. In essence, a given threat escalates and it inspires a defensive countermeasure. The ideal situation is "getting inside your opponents threat spiral"--meaning that your anticipate your opponent's next escalation, and proactively take countermeasures, insulating yourself from the future threat.With that in mind, here are some thoughts on potential home invasion threat escalation and countermeasures (perhaps some SurvivalBlog readers would care to add to this list): 1.) More frequent home invasions. The worse the economy gets, the more crime we can expect. Home invasions and kidnappings are likely "growth" areas. 2.) Use of dynamic entry tools by home invaders. We can expect them to use commercial or improvised door entry battering rams and Hallagan tools--like those use by police. This means that just standard solid core doors by themselves will be insufficient. Switching to steel doors and.or adding sturdy cross bars will become common practice. 3.) Possible use of vehicle-mounted battering rams. 4.) More frequent and elaborate police impersonation by home invasion gangs. 5.) Larger, better equipped, and better organized home invasion gangs. Larger gangs will be able to invade a home--conceivably even when there is a party in progress. 6.) The potential use of cell phone jammers. 7.) More elaborate ruses as pretexts to get homeowners to open their doors. For example, not only will the "point man" be dressed as UPS driver, but there will be a very convincing looking UPS truck parked at the curb.) 8.) More home invasions at any time of the day or night. 9.) More use of pepper spray and other irritants by home invaders. 10.) Use of large diversion such as explosives to draw law enforcement to "the other side of town." 11.) More elaborate intelligence gathering by home invasion gangs--researching exactly who has cash, fine art, gemstones, precious metals, or jewelry in their homes. (BTW, this is just another reason to practice good OPSEC.) Given these possible threat spiral escalations, you might consider building a dedicated "safe room". I can think of no better way to get inside the bad guys' threat spiral. Such a room could serve multiple purposes, including "panic room", gun and valuables vault, storm shelter, and fallout shelter. (And hence, provide you family with solutions for multiple scenarios. The folks at Safecastle (and other specialty contractors) can build these both aboveground or underground, with special order inward-opening vault doors. You mentioned putting a lock on your bedroom door. This is usually insufficient, since most interior doors are hollow core, they typically use lightweight hinges, and they have insubstantial strike plates. Most of these doors can either be knocked down or knocked though, in very short order. I recommend replacing your bedroom doors with heavy duty exterior type doors (preferably steel) with heavy duty hinges and one or more deadbolt locks. If your house has all the bedrooms isolated on one hallway, then I recommend adding a heavy duty door at the end of that hall, and keeping it locked at night. (Basically a "safe wing" for your house) Then, inside of that safe wing, you should have a far more secure dedicated safe room that your entire family can retreat to, before the outer layers of defense succumb to physical attack. Redundant communications are important, so you can solicit outside help. Both the master bedroom and the safe room should have hard wire ("POTS") telephones that are serviced by underground lines with no visible junction boxes. Be sure to test using a cell phone, as a backup, from every room. Having a CB radio in your safe room also makes sense. OBTW, one of my consulting clients in New Mexico intentionally installed a vertical 3"-diameter air exhaust vent from the ceiling of his safe room/fallout shelter to his roof. Using a broomstick, he can pop the slip-fit flapper valve loose, and then use the pipe as a conduit for flares from his HK P2A1 flare 26.5mm flare pistol! He reported that he has tested shooting meteor flares "up the spout", and it worked fine. Very clever. The Ultimate Solution: Designing for Security from the Ground Up I most strongly recommend that the next time that you move, that you buy a brick or other masonry house and upgrade its security, or better yet, start with a bare lot, and custom build a stout house with and integral safe room, from scratch. As previously discussed in SurvivalBlog, two good starting points for house designs are Mexican walled courtyards and building with square bastions (also known as Cooper Corners). These projecting corners eliminate the "blind spots" that are common to typical square or rectangular houses. For greater detail on this subject, I recommend Joel Skousen's book "The Secure Home." My novel "Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse" also has some detailed design description for ballistically armored window shutters and doors, as well details on constructing neo-medieval door bars. If you are serious about custom building or retrofitting an existing house for increased security and/or adding a safe room, then I recommend the architectural consulting services of both Safecastle and Hardened Structures. http://www.survivalblog.com/

scyth | 12-30-2008 05:47 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Twisted Avatar - Good neighbors. Stronger than concrete, steel, and various bad guys. scyth

Mike_Templar | 12-30-2008 05:49 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures I'm reminded of a quote from "The 13th Warrior" when the group was approaching the encampment / cave of the bear people: Do they keep dogs?

Zusn | 12-30-2008 05:53 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures I've been thinking a lot about my house lately. I was thinking of going steel frame for the front and back door. I saw a website that sold a reinforcement bar that went at an angle from the floor to the door knob. I have a machinist friend that'll make me one for the back door. I think it's 3M that makes the clear window film that reinforces glass. Outdoor motion and pressure sensors would be great. Obviously a video system is high on the list too. I don't have anywhere in my house that would make a great safe room, but I'm sure I could figure out how to make a pretty good one. In a real SHTF situation, there would be unpleasant booby traps.

CoinHunter53562 | 12-30-2008 05:53 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Quote:
Originally Posted by scyth (Post 1488198) Twisted Avatar - Good neighbors. Stronger than concrete, steel, and various bad guys. scyth
Do you count on your neighbors to watch over your house 24/7? I live in a good neighborhood and they're the last ones I am going to rely on to protect me, my g/f and my possessions.

CoinHunter53562 | 12-30-2008 05:55 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Btw....good link TA. Thanks for posting it. I agree that most people are in the white zone. My g/f is and it drives me nuts. She is not real good about locking doors or windows properly so it's my OCD that keeps us secure at night.

scyth | 12-30-2008 07:12 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Quote:
Originally Posted by CoinHunter53562 (Post 1488213) Do you count on your neighbors to watch over your house 24/7? I live in a good neighborhood and they're the last ones I am going to rely on to protect me, my g/f and my possessions.
Twisted Avatar - Actually, yeah, and the neighbor river runs both ways. Having said that, I live out in the sticks, On a side road off a side road. I have four neighbors, not counting the guys at the top of The ridge (3 Vietnam vets (all medics, oddly enough) & families). They are, collectively, a retired logger, and In a separate house, his daughter (her husband Is doing tour two in Iraq), A ship's captain who does the Alaska run, And a local general contractor. We all look out for each other's places at times, Plow the road when snow comes (The county doesn't do it), And fill in potholes in mud time, Trade veggies, figure out just which Rot the damn fruit trees have collected this time, Chase the ship's captain's horses in When they figure out a new way to escape, etc.. Collectively, we have an interesting bunch of equipment Which gets traded around as needed. So, yeah, its 24/7 coverage. Not hyper paranoid shit, But there are always eyes and ears. And, frankly, there are loaded weapons In every house. Country style. Which is to say, just another piece of equipment, Not survivalist bling. scyth

ShortJohnSilver | 12-30-2008 07:27 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures That is one HECK of a post! Good find!

killer2021 | 12-30-2008 08:33 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures If you ask me any suburban area is a death trap. If you live in a good area when SHTF, all the robbers are going to go straight to your home. Knowing you have money and valuable things. The only option is to live in the rural country side with a good hedge. Among other protection tools. http://www.holmeforgardens.co.uk/ima...ails/hedge.jpg Good neighbors in the country are A LOT different than good neighbors in the suburbs. Most good neighbors in the suburbs aren't prepared for anything and probably won't do much to help you in times of need. In the country, there is a stronger sense of community so it is more likely that your good country neighbor is prepared and willing to help.

CoinHunter53562 | 12-30-2008 08:38 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Quote:
Originally Posted by killer2021 (Post 1488410) If you ask me any suburban area is a death trap. If you live in a good area when SHTF, all the robbers are going to go straight to your home. Knowing you have money and valuable things. The only option is to live in the rural country side with a good hedge. http://www.holmeforgardens.co.uk/ima...ails/hedge.jpg Good neighbors in the country are A LOT different than good neighbors in the suburbs. Most good neighbors in the suburbs aren't prepared for anything and probably won't do much to help you in times of need. In the country, there is a stronger sense of community so it is more likely that your good country neighbor is prepared and willing to help.
Agree....suburb here, hence my skepticism about relying on my neighbors and why I have two guns. :bear_w00t:

Darkside | 12-30-2008 09:04 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures I've been under such a "condition yellow" for a long time now. Doors and windows are locked, loaded .45 sleeps with me with extra pre-loaded mags nearby. I don't yet walk around the house with it holstered - I suppose that's more "condition red". But if I ever wake up to a unfamiliar noise I take a defensive position at the top of the stairs and wait. Only when I wait quite a while to silence and am comfortable that it was probably nothing do I then proceed to search the house and perimeter carefully with gun drawn. Also it is pretty much impossible to follow me in the car without me noticing. I have very high situational awareness on the road and when I am walking around almost to the point of being paranoid but I'm just being safe. For example if I notice a car behind me on local roads which followed me off the expressway I pass the road to my house and drive in a loop to determine if the other driver is really following me or just coincidence. I never go directly home without noticing if someone is following me. I believe I am as ready as I can be for trouble though I could use some kind of close combat training and even some medical skills.

budfox | 12-30-2008 09:48 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Very timely for me. I woke up at 2 am last night with "get down on the ground, put your hands on the back of your head" being screamed through a patrol car PA. It wasn't directed at me. When I cleared my eyes and looked outside (I'm on a corner lot) I could see the cop now gun drawn yelling at the perp. He wouldn't go down. Next 3 more cop cars show up and wrestle the guy to the ground. I circled around out back with my 38 drawn. There were two more perps they were looking for (could hear on the radio) I cleared my yard and went back inside. We have cinder block walls in Phoenix. They took the guy away after a while. I have since purchsed a full security system to mainly give me advanced warning and motion sensor lights to illuminate the yard. I feel the trick is to make your home the hardest 'mark' on the block. Beware of dog and alarm signs. The perps are cowards and will always choose the easiest mark.

Old Herb Lady | 12-30-2008 10:13 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures There have been ALOT of home invasions close to me. The last one that I can remember very well was when a couple was sitting on their couch eating pizza around lunchtime with a 2 year old and the guy knocked down the door and beat them up really bad. The couple said they had lots of guns in the house, but had no time to grab one because it happened so fast.

Aussie | 12-30-2008 10:48 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures If things get real bad, what's the chance of organized neighborhood militias forming and would they be effective or a waste of time? I have no real opinion, just curious.

Twisted Avatar | 12-30-2008 10:58 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Quote:
Originally Posted by Aussie (Post 1488584) If things get real bad, what's the chance of organized neighborhood militias forming and would they be effective or a waste of time? I have no real opinion, just curious.
That is about ONLY chance you have at not being over run........... Safety in numbers and best numbers to be in are the ones of common interest. T

Glass | 12-30-2008 11:16 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Some good ideas TA. I hope people don't get too suspicious of UPS drivers though. I'd hate for people to freak out on those guys and find they were real UPS drivers. I like the idea of a safe room. In cyclone areas like the north of Australia they have a building code which has a couple of useful ideas. Houses have their windows fitted with storm shutters. These are really just a kind of screen. It is usually extruded aluminum and the extrusion adds to the strength. They are hinged to the top of the window and are held up by latches. They can be easily lowered and fastened against the window. Windows are thicker glass but by no means projectile proof. They will handle sudden pressure drops fairly well so they may be ok for small blasts. Then there is what's called "the bomb shelter". All the houses in the North are either brick veneer or veneer. This means the walls are made from steel framing. Instead of a pine framed house, these ones use steel. Roofs are also steel trussed. The bomb shelter is usually the bathroom. It has very large concrete footings at each corner in addition to the usual concrete floor and footings. Embedded in that is a steel rod which runs through the steel framed wall and bolts to the top plate of the wall. The walls are then lined with a steel plate a few mm's thick. This runs from top to bottom and along the ceiling of the room. This is then lined with a thick marine ply pretty much like the stuff they use in Florida when putting up the shutters. The whole room runs on an isolated circuit. The door is steel plate and has a suitable hinge and jamb to allow removal from the inside with the door closed/blocked. Basically the room is designed to be the last thing standing if the perfect destructive storm comes along. If I could not build underground, this is what I would build.

scyth | 12-30-2008 11:41 PM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Who needs a Militia, When you have a neighborhood? scyth

CoinHunter53562 | 12-31-2008 01:14 AM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkside (Post 1488444) I've been under such a "condition yellow" for a long time now. Doors and windows are locked, loaded .45 sleeps with me with extra pre-loaded mags nearby. I don't yet walk around the house with it holstered - I suppose that's more "condition red". But if I ever wake up to a unfamiliar noise I take a defensive position at the top of the stairs and wait. Only when I wait quite a while to silence and am comfortable that it was probably nothing do I then proceed to search the house and perimeter carefully with gun drawn. Also it is pretty much impossible to follow me in the car without me noticing. I have very high situational awareness on the road and when I am walking around almost to the point of being paranoid but I'm just being safe. For example if I notice a car behind me on local roads which followed me off the expressway I pass the road to my house and drive in a loop to determine if the other driver is really following me or just coincidence. I never go directly home without noticing if someone is following me. I believe I am as ready as I can be for trouble though I could use some kind of close combat training and even some medical skills.
I am becoming the same way. I noticed one day that my g/f had left the front door unlocked for roughly 16 hours. Needless to say I was quite irritated. Anyway, I didnt have a gun yet so I searched the entire house with a large knife in hand, and had sent the dogs ahead to investigate just in case. I also dont have my guns on me at all times but I am thinking of doing that so I dont get caught of guard. I am the same way while driving. You just cant be too safe these days.

mick silver | 12-31-2008 01:32 AM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures for some time i have been added lights out side an other things that well help if some one come close to my home an my litttle german shepard , he been to school , dam he a very smart dog , he well not bark till he on you an got your ass back up . alway 3 guns in my house , one in my easy chair , 1 bedroom , 44 mag loaded in safe . would still like to do alittle more

scyth | 12-31-2008 01:42 AM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures All - You Tube
You Tube
scyth

Donnie740 | 12-31-2008 01:47 AM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Dogs, dogs, dogs. If that couple eating pizza had a reliable protector dog or two, I can guarantee you the home invader would have been ripped to shreads.

Twisted Avatar | 12-31-2008 06:26 AM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Herb Lady (Post 1488532) There have been ALOT of home invasions close to me. The last one that I can remember very well was when a couple was sitting on their couch eating pizza around lunchtime with a 2 year old and the guy knocked down the door and beat them up really bad. The couple said they had lots of guns in the house, but had no time to grab one because it happened so fast.
They got caught flatfooted just like the article mentioned........ but even I must say that has got to be the most brazen thing that can happen. I would be interested to hear more details about this attack( it couldnt have been random) they must have had some type of prior knowlege of valuables or something. T

Stonewall | 12-31-2008 07:56 AM
Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Herb Lady (Post 1488532) There have been ALOT of home invasions close to me. The last one that I can remember very well was when a couple was sitting on their couch eating pizza around lunchtime with a 2 year old and the guy knocked down the door and beat them up really bad. The couple said they had lots of guns in the house, but had no time to grab one because it happened so fast.
Not this two year old: http://www.downtownpet.com/blog/uplo...ild-759940.jpg

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