Ingenious Ways To Keep Looters Away From Your Property

You witnessed the events of 2020 and have seen how the US was absolutely rocked to the core in part by massive mobs of rioters and looters. You saw the destruction and death that followed in their wake, and being a prepper, you want to avoid such a situation ever coming your way.

You’ve read the articles on how to defend your home, how to secure it against forced entry, and what the best home defense weapons are. You know all that. But you don’t even want things to get that far.

You’re looking for something preventative – something that will keep looters from ever even thinking your house is a good place to target in the first place.
If that sounds like you, then read on.

These are 9 ingenious ways to keep looters off your property:

‘Sick Inside’ Notice

This wouldn’t have worked in years past, but it very well may work now. Think about the events of last year. A simple sign that says there’s sick people inside your residence may be all you need to help keep looters at bay.

Whether you say what that sickness is or is not is up to you, but people are going to think twice before kicking down your door.

They’re liable to wonder whether or not you’re contagious, how bad it is, and if they go into your house if they’ll end up getting sick too. Something to think about.

Big Dogs

Hands down, these are one of the best looter preventatives out there. Whether they’re patrolling a fenced in area or barking at the front door, nobody wants to mess with a big dog.

I recently was supposed to rekey an apartment complex (I’m a locksmith) for a customer. They didn’t tell me there was a massive angry dog behind one of the doors. Guess which door didn’t get rekeyed?

Do you think a looter would be willing to take that risk? There are much better targets out there that don’t involve being torn to pieces by a Doberman pinscher.

That’s where a looter is liable to head instead if you have one of these close by.

Barking Dog Audio

Don’t like the idea of having to care for a dog on a daily basis? Why not just have a recording of a gigantic dog barking on repeat? I totally stole this idea from Home Alone, but why not? Warfare has relied on tricking people for forever.

Fake tanks, fake paratroopers, fake documents – they’ve all been used before.

Barking dog audio gives the illusion of strength, something that will cause a looter to think twice before attacking your place. It’s a cheap (potentially free with a smartphone) and easy method to incorporate, and will potentially help you to keep looters off your property.

Visible Cameras

One of the things that cause mob mentality to be so dangerous is that people begin to act as if there will never be any consequences to their actions. When people believe there are no consequences, they’re more than willing to engage in actions they would “normally” not engage in.

One of the reasons people within a mob setting believe there will be no consequences is because there’s a belief they’re disguised under a layer of anonymity.

Take away that perception of anonymity – remind them that there very well will be consequences later – and you’ll have taken a massive step towards scaring off looters.

Cameras are one fantastic way of doing such.

A number of cameras placed in out of reach but prominent locations will cause looters to realize that they’re currently being filmed, that their faces are on the record, and that it likely may not be difficult to be held accountable in the near future.

Plenty of Lighting

This goes hand-in-hand with the advice about having visible cameras. Adequate lighting around your property assures that any actions performed near your property are not done in the dark.

Looters like operating in the dark. Why? Because it conceals their actions, once more giving them a feeling of anonymity/zero consequences.

Light up your place like a Christmas tree though and you help to eliminate a looter’s perception that your place is a good place to attack unnoticed and without repercussion.

Spotlights Pointed Outwards

You can’t hit what you can’t see! Why not take a hint from Will Smith’s I Am Legend?

Placing floodlights, spotlights, or some other bright source of light (not lasers. You’ll blind somebody and go to jail.) pointed away from your house is a great means to keep looters from even being able to see what’s going on should they attempt to head towards your property.

Once more, I’m not sure about the legality of this though. In a WROL/TEOTWAWKI environment, sure. In a “normal” world, you may want to do a little background legal snooping on this one.

Present a Dangerous Appearance

You really need to know your local laws on this one if you’re still in a (semi-) functioning society.

Look at that lawyer couple of last year who game outside with an AR-15 and a pistol to deter looters from attacking their home and family.

While they most certainly had a number of legal hurdles they were forced to jump through later, guess whose family wasn’t attacked?

Guess whose home wasn’t burned to the ground?

That couple presented a dangerous appearance, looters were afraid of getting hurt, and the couple’s family didn’t end up in an emergency room or early grave.

Use discretion and knowledge of your current circumstances to figure out how to go about this but know that perception of danger works.

Know Your Neighbors

This follows with the preceding point. Do you remember reading about the rooftop Koreans? The community – the act of knowing one’s neighbors – helped serve as a preventative of arson, burglary, and murder for that tight-knit group (Source).

While perhaps you find that era of history distasteful, you can’t argue against the point that the community they had built helped them to present a strong defensive force.

Nobody wants to attack a strong, dug-in enemy. It’s a good way to get torn to pieces.

Knowing your neighbors – and being on the same page – helps you to present a dangerous appearance. It makes you appear strong, even if the facts may be otherwise.

Mosquito Screech

What age do the majority of looters seem to appear? Are they in their mid-40s and older? Are they younger? Though this is a broad generalization, I believe it’s safe to say that the majority of looters are younger. This means multiple things, but one of those things is this: they have better hearing.

There is a degree of hearing loss that happens to just about everybody as they age which enables younger people to hear sounds that older people cannot.

Young people can hear it and older people cannot (Source). If you’re in the middle of a town that’s currently being rocked by rioters, activating this sound over loudspeakers around your house could serve as a great deterrent for looters.

It would be so unpleasant just to be around your property that the majority of looters would be likely to keep moving on.

Final Thoughts

Looters can be an intimidating (and deadly) threat. It’s much better to prevent the threat from ever happening in the first place than to deal with the aftermath.

Hopefully, the above nine tips will help you to come up with some ideas you may be able to employ on your own property.

Are there other tips out there you believe would help to keep looters off of your property as well? Have you ever had the opportunity to use any of the above defenses? Do you have thoughts on the efficacy of the above? Let us know in the comments below!

This article first appeared on Ask A Prepper.

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