Free E-Book "The Construction of Secret Hiding Places"

Siglvr · Dec 13, 2013

Changing out your stairwells, baseboards, closet doors or that useless space under the dishwasher and making them have a dual purpose - etc etc. Great dedication intro IMO, good stuff.

http://www.truthistreason.net/downloads/SecretHidingPlaces.pdf

billdeserthills · Dec 13, 2013

Reminds me of the old Paladin Press books, there is some decent info in there but I find cars to have some of the easiest hiding places. Once you learn to pull a door panel or explore the dashboard or molding plenty of choices can turn up

erudne · Dec 13, 2013

good for hiding gear from looters, not trained search partys

U201491 · Dec 14, 2013

Thanks, Good starting points.

CamoDeafie · Dec 14, 2013

erudne said:
good for hiding gear from looters, not trained search partys

you know what would really confound the search parties?

multiple gun vaults. I don't mean "multiple guns" i mean like say, 5-10 safes/vaults, OR instead of using wood for drawers/shelving, use all steel items; lockable tool chests/cabinets, lockers, gun safes, etc....in the open. while having the actual valuables in a good heavy vault/safe hidden somewhere outside the main house... a shed, a shop/garage with a work-pit....and then develop escape tunnels and defensible points on the property; of course, maintaining OPSEC/PERSEC is important, so dont go around talking about this like that guy a while back who killed his daughter and her bf and his wife/ex, and went to a mountain where he built stuff over a long time before snapping and suiciding himself...

jbett98 · Dec 14, 2013

As a teenager, I helped my dad replace an old bathroom in-the-wall mirror cabinet with a larger wall hung mirror.
The mirror had a cable glued on to it's back and hung from two hooks bolted to the wall studs.
All you had to do is turn the little plastic mirror clips at the bottom and pull the mirror out just enough to reach under it and access the wall cavity behind the mirror.
It was the perfect place to stash everything a 16 yr old boy needed to hide stuff from his parents, (this is in the 70's.)
I always had fresh clothes hidden in the laundry hamper and when I got home after partying with my friends, I made a bee line for the bathroom, brushed my teeth, changed clothes and put drops in my eyes. The oldies never caught on.

Worked great for over a year, until I came home from school one day and found a large diagonal crack running across the lower left corner.
I about had a heart attack when I heard my dad calling my name and asking me to help him remove the mirror from the wall.
We lifted it off, and to my utmost amazement, the cavity was empty.

Come to find out, my little brother had deduced where I was hiding my contraband, and tried to lift the whole mirror off of the cable brackets.
He told my parents he was using a hair dryer and it slipped out of his hand and struck the mirror.
I never thought my little brother was that smart.

U201491 · Dec 14, 2013

jbett98 said:
As a teenager, I helped my dad replace an old bathroom in-the-wall sink mirror cabinet with a larger wall hung mirror.
The mirror had a cable glued on to the back and hung from two hooks bolted to the wall studs.
All you had to do is turn the little plastic mirror clips at the bottom and pull the mirror out just enough to reach under it and access the wall cavity behind the mirror.
It was the perfect place to stash everything a 16 yr old boy needed to hide stuff from his parents, (this is in the 70's.)
I always had fresh clothes hidden in the laundry hamper and when I got home after partying with my friends, I made a bee line for the bathroom, brushed my teeth, changed clothes and put drops in my eyes. The oldies never caught on.

Worked great for over a year, until I came home from school one day and found a large diagonal crack running across the lower left corner.
I about had a heart attack when I heard my dad calling my name and asking me to help him remove the mirror from the wall.
We lifted it off, and to my utmost amazement, the cavity was empty.

Come to find out, my little brother had deduced where I was hiding my contraband, and tried to lift the whole mirror off of the cable brackets.
He told my parents he was using a hair dryer and it slipped out of his hand and struck the mirror.
I never thought my little brother was that smart.

My bet is, your parents were a LOT smarter than you gave them credit for also

U201491 · Dec 14, 2013

Everything discussed here so far has been done and those searching know them all. A better bet is to do something unique and original and then not talk about it except to immediate family members that know to keep their mouths shut.
With the development of metal detectors, xray, IR there are very few secure locations now. You need to keep all that in mind and plan accordingly.

jbett98 · Dec 14, 2013

You don't know my Mother. The Gestapo were lightweights compared to her.

CamoDeafie · Dec 14, 2013

Taku said:
With the development of metal detectors, xray, IR there are very few secure locations now. You need to keep all that in mind and plan accordingly.

kind of hard when everything has the same metal signatures as the steel and aluminum used in weaponry...now, gun powder and the like, along with the shapes....well there's no real getting around those...however.... I am willing to bet that the teams they send out to search houses and the like; will NOT be as well trained, nor really as clever as their commanding officers/superiors, because they will be expecting resistance, and it is a waste of training to teach to "cannon fodder"...far better to engage the hostiles before searching the place. Myself.... I have nothing in way of valuables other than a potential art piece.

chemist · Dec 27, 2013

The idea of a decoy safe is intriguing. Since the Doe Run lead smelter shut down, I've thought about buying maybe a ton of lead blocks, but then where would I put 'em? Could you imagine the shock and rage on the faces of the team that pulled my big old safe out of the floor and drug the darned thing all the way home to pry it open?