False Sense of Security and Reality

Talked to many people lately who said they are now interested in buying a safe to put in their homes. Some of them heard the news about Japanese people have bought so many safes that many places are out of stock. Some of them learned that in Europe the trouble caused by the refugees has been getting worse. Overall, many people here started to feel the insecurity in our modern society, finally. But does it really help to install a safe at home? I seriously doubt that, at least not the way these folks think a safe will do for them.

A Safe Is Not There To Protect You From Real Criminals

Many people who are thinking of buying a safe in North America got the wrong idea what a safe is really useful for.

In short, a safe is there to mainly deal with disasters like fire, flood or even earthquake so that your valuables, not just expensive jewelleries or money, like important documents, are protected. A lesser important duty of a safe is to guard against casual theft as the inconvenience to open a safe or to carry the damn heavy thing would reduce the chance of the thieves from wasting time on the safe due to the elevated risk of being caught as more time and effort has to be spent at the crime scene.

If you really care about the stuff you put into the safe, you cannot have it standing around like a piece of furniture. Even hiding the safe does not really help. Real robbers can simply put your life in danger to force you to disclose all the money and valuables you have. They can force you to open the safe for them. They do not even need to do it themselves.

But this last situation has been the exact motivation driving normal people into thinking of getting a safe so that they can feel safe with their valuables. This is false sense of security at best and false sense of reality at worst. If I were some ruthless criminals, I would target those folks with the best safes around since they are probably the ones who have the most valuable things for me to rob, isn’t it?

The Old Saying of Keeping Your Wealth a Secret Works Much Better

If you cannot afford 24 hours security guards, super ninjas and snipers protecting your house, the best option is to live a life without all the fancy things – hiding yourself and your family in a nice neighbourhood that would not draw attention from thieves and robbers is a good starting point. Not having fancy cars that attract attentions is another. But some people need to satisfy themselves with the keeping up with the jones feeling. Well, if that’s the case you should also accept the fact that you are subjecting yourself and your family 100 times the chance of being robbed and other risk. It’s a personal choice.

An interesting trick used by people coming from long lineage of wealthy background is the use of a decoy placed in a common location for such purpose. The decoy safe should have some money and other stuff enough to make the perpetrators think they find the jackpot. Essentially a way to buy yourself and your family a chance to survive the ordeal, hopefully minimize the harm done to you and your family.

Putting gold bars at home even hiding in places you think cannot be found is not such a good idea. By having the right kind of metal detector, your stash of gold will be found in no time. Once one stash is found, you can be sure the criminals will waste no time at all to start asking for more hiding places. You are essentially asking them to torture you and your family.

Ten Years From Now

The relative low crime rate in western countries and North America cannot last. As global economy contracts, more and more people will be forced out of work. Let alone potential natural disasters that are picking up speed lately. If the spiral down effect turns into a trend, it will be difficult to imagine in 10 to 15 years how bad things can get in major cities around the world.

It will be a big headache for governments worldwide. I do not see them being able to stop the trend from happening.

To keep oneself safe in troubled period does not start from buying a safe, some weapons or defensive gears, it starts from changing your mindset on how to stay out of trouble all together by being invisible to the criminals in the first place.

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