Thread: Camouflaging your food stores

Ok so we have taken all the time and trouble to collect our food stores. Now we have to keep them from being taken by intruders into our storage area. Of course burying your stores or building false walls to hide it behind would be ideal but what about when that is not possible? What about when your boxes or buckets will be in places that will certainly be seen eventually? What are some ideas for camouflaging the nature of your stores?

For example, you could put on a label that suggests that your buckets are a poisonous corrosive or possibly something useless to the intruder like family photos. I know a pile of 30 5 gallon buckets of "Corrosives" in your garage would look odd as well as "Buckets" of family photos. What are some strategies for misleading intruders so they are repelled by or lose interest in your stash? Ideas?

I think 30 five-gallon buckets of almost anything will attract attention...but one idea would be to mark them as follows: 3" nails, 2" nails, wood screws 2", etc etc. that might be believeable and worthless.

Label everything "NAKED PHOTOS OF Bea Arthur"

How about labeling everything as fertilizer or compost. Most people won't want to steal crap.

My thoughts are that anything not hidden and subject to being seen will be ransacked regardless. If I was the ransack'er I would consider poison to have a purpose and a trading value. My next thought would be that if you were being ransacked you're probably already dead making it all a moot point anyway.

Hahaaa... Naked photos of Bea Arthur LOL!

How about adding.... Naked photos of.... Janet Reno, Hillary Clinton, Abe Vigoda and of course....Walter Brennan.

While its not high on the sanitation rating, i'd say have a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet lid relatively close, preferably with a little waste in it (and lime to help with the smell perhaps). if there were a few fetish mags dealing with poo around as well, it probably wouldn't hurt. a bit off the wall, but it might work. personally, i'd be under the assumption that the buckets were full of bubblegume, and stay clear.

along the same lines you could have it labeled "2 girls 1 cup supplies"

Originally Posted by phathom

along the same lines you could have it labeled "2 girls 1 cup supplies"

Thanks for the reminder Phathom, it took 6 months of therapy to get that video out of my head. I'm going to my happy place! See you guys in a year or so.

Lefty.

I spent a decade as a carpenter and then a decade as a "handyman" and I have been in a LOT of people's garages. I often saw standard file storage boxes stowed, with labels like, "Tax receipts, 1988-90". These were totally unremarkable, the kinds of sturdy cardboard lidded file boxes sold at office supply stores, and often had a series of boxes with a sequence of years labeled in black marker---which added to the boring nature of the boxes.

If you try something like this, hiding in plain sight, bear in mind that any cardboard box stored on a concrete floor will decay. Concrete "transpires" moisture for many years, and paper products must be protected from the moisture by a plastic membrane, or kept off of the floor.....................elsullo

Originally Posted by Trlsmn

My thoughts are that anything not hidden and subject to being seen will be ransacked regardless. If I was the ransack'er I would consider poison to have a purpose and a trading value. My next thought would be that if you were being ransacked you're probably already dead making it all a moot point anyway.

+1

If things have gotten that bad you better hope you have a secure shelter fully stocked. The only supplies in the garage or house should be buckets labeled food, guns, ammo, etc with traps in them to keep the looters on the walls rather than looking for the hidden entrance to your shelter.

Originally Posted by BlvdKing

+1

If things have gotten that bad you better hope you have a secure shelter fully stocked. The only supplies in the garage or house should be buckets labeled food, guns, ammo, etc with traps in them to keep the looters on the walls rather than looking for the hidden entrance to your shelter.

I have to agree and if anyone here with a visible IP addy (IE all of us) thinks they have not already been logged into a google/earth/zip code/ account AND given away all they own, answering these questions like some duffus to a blind phone caller, Your a long ways from being a survivor.
{PS expect a Fed-Ex RPG about 2010)

elsullo,

Tax records.... that is an excellent idea. They are useless to others and are not even interesting. It is not even too odd for these "Tax records" to be in buckets as they would better protect the documents from moisture.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Right, like I have 200 5 gallon buckets of tax records, LOL.

Originally Posted by cyborg

elsullo,

Tax records.... that is an excellent idea. They are useless to others and are not even interesting. It is not even too odd for these "Tax records" to be in buckets as they would better protect the documents from moisture.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Playing ransack'er here:

What do we have here? a bunch of 5 gal buckets of dry tax records, wow those would make great dry fire starters for my camp lets grab those too!

Think like the offender not the defender!

Originally Posted by Trlsmn

Playing ransack'er here:

What do we have here? a bunch of 5 gal buckets of dry tax records, wow those would make great dry fire starters for my camp lets grab those too!

Think like the offender not the defender!

I agree that five gallon buckets with lids are attractive to looters---they have HANDLES, and can be dumped out to carry other booty. Lidded buckets are also useful for hooch toilets, and campsite furniture. I don't think useful buckets would be good to camoflage important resources.......................elsullo

I vote for a false wall or room. Or if you can camouflage the entrance to your basement, like turn the doorway into a false closet, that would be ideal.

Originally Posted by cyborg

Ok so we have taken all the time and trouble to collect our food stores. Now we have to keep them from being taken by intruders into our storage area.

What are some strategies for misleading intruders so they are repelled by or lose interest in your stash? Ideas?

Don't forget to spray paint your sheep in a nice woodland pattern.

Seriously, how about a small false wall or false back to a garage or basement?
Frame it and sheet rock it and figure out an entry way or hidden removable panel. In that sort of arrangement, I'd leave some stuff that's easy to find... so you can give the impression of being "cleaned out"

Also, may not be practical, but how about a stash underground away from your building, it can be hard to pull off. But if you have an old trailer or RV, park it above your stash; this will only work if you have privacy setting up.

i would think your best bet would be to store in crawl space or attic space.. maybe not the best location but thinking as a looter I would not think of crawling under a house, especially if you tuck it away on the opposite end of the crawl space..

There was a guy who wrote for American Survival Guide, he suggested building false walls and using the space behind and under kitchen drawers, false water heaters, stuff like that which would not be noticed during a snatch and grab. Of course home invasions, such as those in S.A. routinely torture the occupants. Like Mel Tappan said you need an in depth defense system plus several last ditch options.