Preppers Unprepared for Burglars Who Steal Guns, Body Armor, Machetes

What’s the first rule of prepping? You do not talk about prepping. What’s the second rule of prepping? You do not talk about prepping…

Why is that? Well, unless you’re doing a public service like GunsAmerica founder Paul Helinski who puts out the most comprehensive and insightful survivalist series on the Internet, Prepping 101, you do not want to those in your immediate area to know that you are stocked up on guns, gear and food should we fall on hard times. The reason is obvious. You make yourself a target. Opportunistic thieves are always looking for a quick score, and if you’ve advertised or spoke publicly about your predilections for prepping, the fact that you have a cache of awesome guns in your basement, you may will end up on their radar.

Aside from keeping a low profile, the next best thing to do is to make sure the bulk of your guns and gear and other weapons are safely secured — like in a safe (check out our GunsAmerica buying guide for safes)! The more secured your stuff is, the harder time it is going to be for some thug to take it from you. That’s just common sense.

A Cleveland family may be learning that latter lesson the hard way after burglars snatched and grabbed their guns, knives, body armor, and other supplies last week while they were sleeping.

Teena Brayen and her husband explained to Fox 8 that the burglars probably got the bead on them when they were moving their stuff into their new house on Oct. 28 (they were moving down to Cleveland from New York). Apparently, once the thieves realized that the Brayens were sitting on a bunch of firearms, they waited for the right moment and struck. Judging by the wooden gun cases in the video above, which are great for show but do not do much in terms of secure storage, it was easy pickings for the criminals.

Now, Teena is worried about what will become of the firearms and the miscreants who stole them.

“These guys are prepared for war now, they have seven guns, seven,” Brayen said.

“Our military personnel, especially, and our police officers because they wear bullet proof vests. We have a gun out there that can pierce them and go through cars. All you have got to do is aim it,” she continued. “They took all of our ammo. With the ammunition that they’ve got, they’re good for a good year with that ammunition.”

Obviously, she’s a little uneducated about firearms and ammunition because, technically speaking, there are a lot of common calibers, including many popular hunting cartridges, that can pierce a car door or go through the various levels of body armor. The big issue isn’t the type ammo or rifle, rather it’s the fact that now there are more armed criminals on the street.

Hopefully, Teena and her husband learn from this incident. They ought to adopt a new home defense plan, invest in a solid safe, an alarm system, and maybe even a watchdog. Because you can prepare all you want, but if your stuff is not properly protected, it’s as good as gone — and that’s the truth whether it’s pre-collapse or post collapse.

On a related note, Paul wrote an excellent article on low-budget perimeter alarms that really delves into the mindset one should have when it comes to protecting the homestead. This particular excerpt highlighted below is true whether you are on a farm or in an apartment.

If you have a bugout location already picked out, your most valuable resource in to think like trapper. If you have never looked into this hobby and profession, the trap is never about where you think the animal might walk. Successful trappers learn the art of guiding the animal into the trap. You do this by creating a path of easy travel surrounded by paths of difficult travel, without it looking like the situation was created for the trap.

Know the most common entry and egress points of your home. Guard them and monitor them and secure them well. Doing this will go a long way to stopping scumbags before they can even set foot through the door.