On today's episode of survival Dispatch News we're discussing Target hardening Your home [Music] Hey guys today's video is brought to you By esri this is the esri elite backpack Even though it's a backpack you can also Carry it like a briefcase guys this is Form retaining it even has a port you Can charge your phone in the side this Is for your upper level gray man here This is the elite level backpack the Esri elite check it out we've got a link Below so you can learn more about it and We're back with Steve and Dan from Anything outdoors with Steve welcome Back Steve Hello thanks for having me join us Dan Really appreciate it thank you for Having us on I want to thank you for Your service to our country as well Dan Thank you very much thank you very much So Steve we kind of we talked a little Bit offline Um you know about Target hardening People's homes Um and if you're a harder Target than The neighbors probably the neighbor's House that the bad guys is going to go To let's just jump right in and get some Of your ideas on on how people can Harden their homes Yeah there's there's so many different Ways to look at this and what to prepare
For uh it's it's difficult to prepare For everything so you really have to Look at okay what's our scenarios and How can we Harden for that uh the Easiest of course is landscape uh we've Discussed that many times where putting Rose bushes blackberries around your Property around your house around Certain locations to where this is the Natural area where people might want to Tend towards you can put blackberries There my gosh you cannot push through Those without coming out bloody and they Just intertwine they make this mess of The Thorns all hooked in the wrong Direction no matter which way you push Or pull and once you get in it you're Stuck so there's lots of easy cheap Deterrents that you can use and it it Goes downhill from there so it depends On what exactly you're looking at Covering and how you want to protect Against it and it might it might bear Interjecting at this as it at this early Stage in the conversation that you know Unless you we're living in a war zone The type of defense that we're looking At the type of Target hardening that We're we're talking about is Um we're concerned about criminal Elements uh either burglarizing or or Robbing you know a home situation yes Yeah we're very limited as far as what We're legally able to do and without
Getting into way too much trouble Because even simple things it'll I've Heard a story where somebody broke into Somebody's house while they were gone on Vacation they just so happen to have a Defective law lock on their door to Where the thief couldn't enter the house And couldn't get out of the garage Because there was a power outage soon After or whatever the scenario may have Been so he was stuck in that garage Until the homeowners came back and he Would survive enough dog food so he ends Up suing him in wins millions of dollars For breaking into their house and having A defective lock so it's it's horribly Twisted in the judicial system as far as Who gets benefits from illegal Activities I mean it's just terrible So I I would I would think that one of The best things we could do when trying To put together a long-term Comprehensive safety strategy defense Strategy for for our family If you're in a big city if you have the Means get out if you have the ability to Move someplace where there's a lower Crime rate do it that's the most Profound thing that you can do to have An impact on your you know on your Probability of living a safe and happy Life Um you know try to try to locate in a in A place in the United States where it's
Not illegal to defend yourself that Might be also something to to factor in As a very predication of any kind of Safety strategy yeah it truly is that's That's actually a really interesting Topic that you bring up Dan so I mean All 50 states have one iteration or Another of the castle doctrine but some States it's it's very bastardized North Carolina would be a prime example so They have the castle doctrine but it has A fair fight Clause attached to it so if You break into my house well the Baseball bat and I shoot you I'm getting Charged so I can only fight you with Something that's equal like a baseball Bat it's absolute Insanity yeah yes We're we're located in North Idaho and Uh Yeah let's just say the law is favored The homeowners up here uh you break into My house you could be really sorry about That well I mean we live in The Gunshot Gunshine State here in Florida Yeah so we have a you know very strong Castle doctrine we were also the first State to have stand your ground our Stand your ground lost three sentences Long there's no room for Misinterpretation whether you have a gun Or not if I felt that my life was in Danger and I had to use deadly force it Doesn't just state that you know Um I can't be convicted but you can't
Even indict or charge somebody in the State of Florida if it's compelling that Hey I thought Dan was going to kill me So I did what I had to do another thing The end yep Going back to your comments with regards To the landscaping and stuff Um you made a comment to me through the Week with regards to uh people being Able to hide and stuff as well do you Want to expand on that well you've got Natural barriers around your property And it of course depends on how large Your property is you know if you're Downtown there's always going to be a Rove brush trees shrubs whatever that People can duck down behind so if There's a car passing by they can duck Quickly and then go back to work on Breaking in silently if they're trying To go silent or just do the old Smash And grab but those natural barriers Become a hiding spot for them and some People try to use that in their favor Where they'll plant something else next To that natural barrier to prevent such Activity so if they duck behind a bush They're coming out bloody and that a lot Of times will for people you know the When when you start bleeding it changes Your mind a lot and if you're topped up On drugs though maybe not so so there's Always different factors to play there Yeah
So uh Dan give me your thoughts on uh Physically hardening your property your House in particular what are some of the Things that people can do Well you know I think perhaps I should Uh preface that comment by saying most Of us are not independently wealthy and We we can't afford to have a an armed Security contingent curling the Perimeter of our property 24 7. so you Know you know budget budgetary Constraints definitely factor into one's You know defense strategy but there are A lot of cost-effective ways that you Can make yourself less of a soft target One that I was born and raised in Idaho But you know I lived around the world I Moved up from Los Angeles about 12 years Ago and one of the first things that I Realized when I bought my house in North Idaho is that it was woefully woefully Song usually so Um you know the front door was was Beautiful and ornate and had beautiful Very fragile glass windows in the door That you could just you know punch out With your elbow and reach in and open Door and walk in so actually Steve was One of the people that gave me advice on How to pardon pardon my house up a Little bit Um the very first thing I did was put a An ornate steel door on the front of my House so there's you know there's two
Doors so Um yeah that layered defense really Makes a big difference you know almost With everything layers of Defense are The biggest Factor as far as giving you Time to react because if somebody just Has one door to kick through it's really Simple you splint through the frame You're in uh having something that Mounts on the outside you're now working Not only against just the the side load Frame stress but the whole wall now so It screws on with security screws all The way around the perimeter and now you Can't just do a simple bash entry Anymore yeah I mean that's fantastic Advice we have a steel storm door on Well actually both of our main doors They're out swing as well so it's not Basically eat something easily kicked in And you're correct it is mounted you Know to the frame on the outside and Then our our front door we took all the You know short screws out of it and put Long screws to get all the way back into The Jack studs so yeah simple things Like that and you're right Dan they're Not super expensive in the grand scheme Of things I think those ornate steel Doors are oh yeah Something like that now granted The the most robust wall can still be Breached by a determined enemy you know The Great Wall of China didn't keep out
The Mongolians the Maginot Line didn't Keep out the Germans the Atlantic Wall Didn't prevent Normandy invasion but Um you if a criminal is you know Perusing the neighborhood they're going To choose between the soft target and The Hard Target you know don't look like A pussycat look like a porcupine yeah So another thing I did first Steve's Advice was install a security camera System and again you know for people Saying oh well gosh I don't have money To do that they're surprisingly Affordable they're they're it's not that Big of an investment there's there's Wireless camera systems the the Resolution of the of the cameras Granite Are not as as good as you know hardwired Camera systems but they seem to work Okay I installed mine in on a weekend Yeah first thing that comes to mind that That's not expensive is a ring doorbell Yes a ring doorbell and that's a Hard-wired system so you're going Directly into the power supply of the Doorbell existing and it's powered that Way and I usually try to advise against People getting wireless cameras for Multiple reasons and one of them is the Battery you're always offering that Camera getting the battery replaced and If it's difficult to get to to make it Hard to steal the camera it's difficult To get to to replace the battery and
You're less likely to do so yeah Sorry go ahead go ahead the deterrent Effect of of a camera system oh yeah Even even if you're not around uh you Know somebody walks up onto your house You know what the intent with Mal intent And they see it you know security camera Pointing down at them they're they're Disinclined unless they're really hopped Up on some kind of you know narcotics to To turn around and and choose a softer Target but my office was broken into Many many years ago and it caused a Massive amount of disruption to our Business So when we Harden that particular Property I don't remember the exact Count but there was at least say 12 to 15 operational cameras We put an equal number of fake cameras In as well so it it looked like we had 30 plus cameras saturating the property So perception is reality right it's a Great deterrent and then so I guess it Might bear saying that you know there Are two different basic threats that we Face as as homeowners uh one is is Burglary But another is you know armed armed home Invasion so the ATF Yeah exactly I'll probably be a knock at my door in About 30 seconds how many rounds in that Magazine yes right so for for uh you
Know to deter Would-be burglar you definitely a video Camera system especially if the video is Going to Cloud Um once they're on film they're on film Smile there you are Um as far as If an occupied house with a security Camera system when you hear that Suspicious sound at 3am outside you Don't have to walk outside in your Hello Kitty nightgown you know shining that Flashlight saying who's there who's There yeah you kind of just got this Mental image of you Dan I don't know if It's good I was referring alluding to Steve Actually that makes sense So you know being able to to walk over To just look glance at at your video Screen and peruse the perimeter of your Property and realize oh it's just a you Know it's another deer you know jumping Over the fence and So you have it's an early warning system And and hardening your house Ultimately it's it's a deterrent effect As well as a delay effect that you're That you're striving for yeah you want To deter will it be would be criminals And those who are intent on doing you Harm it gives you some time to prepare For for the onslaught that that's very Well said
Um there are also systems out there They've been around for years where They're motion detectors and I'm not Talking lights with motion detectors Just motion detectors that'll set off Your phone or keypad inside same thing Early warning device and the bad guy Doesn't even know that he's been Detacted Yeah I've got one at the entry of my Driveway so I usually know when he's Stopping by or when the uh gear party is Leaving uh we've got a lot of those False alarms where oh it's just a group Of deer so you usually get about 10 12 Alerts in a row and unfortunately that Would be uh a time to be suspicious as If you get 10 12 alerts in a row do I Have a group of people coming in but We've gotten to that point where we just Assume it's it's a deer party leaving or Coming and they've been down during the Desk of the days around our property so They just usually come and go from our Driveway unfortunately but uh that's Where the camera system comes into play Too because you'll start getting motion Alerts on your camera system and having That Wi-Fi ability to where you can just Simply pull it up on your phone real Quick and oh no that's not deer that's a Pack of wolves coming to chew on our Little Fido Now another another uh technology early
Warning technology that's been around For a long time Is called the canine It's it's always useful to have some Yappy dogs Uh these this is a very effective early Warning system Yeah um we have two we have two large Dogs and uh they hear stuff long before We do and we've learned to pay attention To them Um they don't our dogs don't bark at Nothing if they're barking or growling There's something there Yeah and they usually have a couple Different bark Too there's there's somewhere they're Just inquisitive and they start doing a Little yeah so you learn to listen to Your dogs and as far as what they're Telling you yeah yeah absolutely Um so I think also physically maybe not So much applicable to y'all up there in The Upper Midwest but down here in Florida Um impact resistant hurricane resistant Windows are a thing here and they're Quite a bit harder to break through than You know say a crappy single or even Double pane window Yeah having that shatter guard right Behind the glass even if it shatters It's still held in place and you usually Glue around the perimeter with some nice
Np1 type silicone stuff that really Holds it well so after the window breaks You still have to apply a considerable Pressure just to even get through it and Even if you did one side that is just Phenomenal resistance to already give You in plenty of time and and that's What we're looking at is just giving Time so you have an idea do I have to Escape or do I sit and fight and so it Depends on the scenario greatly right There you know if you've got a group of People you may not be able to come out Winning and so having your family in Mind do you try to get out Get real fast proficient at that yes so You know aside from these kind of Catastrophic you know onslaught of Multiple criminals in an apocalyptic Scenario aside from that there are a lot Of really practical and cost effective Measures that people can take to make Themselves a harder Target Um we we discussed having a more robust Door if you have a hollow Corridor on The side of your garage or on the back Of your garage yeah address that you Know if if you know if I can walk Through it you know and and Like the Kool-Aid man is that does that Date me hello Okay yeah I'm a little long in the tooth Just so you know you know if you could If somebody could just walk right
Through your hall of core exterior door You might want to address that Um lock your garage Don't don't assume somebody's not going To try your garage door to see if they Can get it open Times have changed yes have changed Um don't leave don't leave your key Under the mat that's an old trick people Have figured it out you know oh I hide It under this flower pot over here Aren't I clever no you're not you know That the fake rock in the in the garden No that you know this the German burglar Will will kick around a bit and try and Figure that out or watch you enter your House and reach for that key under the You know under the flower pot or or the Hose or wherever you have it wherever You think you've cleverly concealed it Um don't do that yes yeah tools of Opportunity oh go ahead while I actually Have a a story that kind of relates to Your comments offline Steve with regards To not leaving tools outside that Somebody can use you know as a battering Ram or something to break into your House with so many years ago we were Traveling and a friend of ours stayed at Our house to watch the dogs and I had Put an automatic lock on the main door From the garage into the house and so The dogs had to go out and my friend Went out on the Lanai and the door
Closed behind him and the door from the Living room that he went through had two Locks on it a deadbolt and one on a Privacy set or lock set and he had Turned it he was from New York and he Was New York City and he was paranoid About stuff we typically didn't lock the One on the the locks that we locked the Deadbolt and so he gets outside he's in His underwear and realizes that he can't Get back in the house and so he makes His way around to to the garage and hits The keypad and gets in but of course That door's locked so we got back late At night uh you know a few days later he Had gone homie stayed with the dogs and Fed them and you know we get home in the Middle of the night sort of thing walk Into the garage The door the lock and everything is just Annihilated he had no clothes he Couldn't go anywhere else so here he is Taking my tools my drills and Hammers And chisels and beat the crap out of This door this deadbolt to get in the House it was 500 damage You know yeah so so you there's a good Anecdotal example of yours yes not only Is that a good anecdote but it also Gives you a good idea of how well your Stuff holds up too so he's using tools Of opportunity within your garage and Still taking time to get in of course He's trying to be nice he's not just
Smashing the door open but well um Actually he told me he was being nice Until he had to go to the bathroom and Oh He didn't walk over the Neighbors in his Underwear and say hey how you doing I'm Friends with them uh can I use y'all's Restroom uh so yeah he beat the crap Yes so I've mentioned it last week where Uh my wife tends to leave tools out and So that's where the tools of opportunity Comes in and the one time I panicked a Little bit is when she left the old Fence post driver right by the front Door and now you got this two handled And it's sturdy you know it's designed To pound a t-post into the ground you've Got a lot of weight behind it one or two Smashes you're in the door you don't Even have to expend a lot of energy Somebody that's walking by if you just So happen to be within view of the Street or a path like that and sees that And is in that mindset of looking for Opportunities that has already presented Itself By SWAT teams It is it really is and it's amazing how Much force when you use it like that how Much force you can apply on an object Where even if it's a hard nailed door Frame you can actually start tearing That door frame apart with a few whacks And it's it's amazing what you can do
With one of those uh pry bars are the Same thing you know you start prying on It it doesn't matter how deep your Screws go you start getting attacks like That and you're getting in and so that's Where you're just viewing it as Just a delayed time so you've got time To react time to prepare So that's what it's all about wrap up Let's let's Circle back to the concept Of uh booby traps so you know there's a Lot of precedent setting cases where the Courts value life more than property so We're just saying this for the benefit Of the survival dispatch audience I Highly recommend that you do not put Booby traps on your property that could Hurt somebody uh high probability that You'll be held responsible for that I Mean there's there's some amazing booby Traps you can put out there but unless You have a reason like you have Bears on Your property you probably shouldn't put Out bear traps uh you know things along That lines did you have anything you Want to add to that before we wrap up Guys Yeah I would like to I'd like to point Out a tried and true methodology for Increased security of your home Um it's a lost it's a lost thing we call Neighbors yes Um my I keep my spare key in my Neighbor's house and their spare key is
In my house my neighbor watches out for Me I watch out for them Um I have a house in North Thailand in Rural Thailand Um in addition to my house here in North Idaho I have all these security systems On it when the cat walks across the Porch it alerts my phone but I'm 8 000 Miles away what can I do I don't have to Do anything because my neighbors will go Buzzing up to find out why somebody's Prowling around my property we can do The same thing here you know talk to Your neighbors introduce yourself uh Share share your security Now their Strength in numbers Yeah a few minutes of talking to your Neighbors you realize who you can rely On and who you can't so you just start Getting acquainted as you're doing Walking the dog down the streets you get Acquainted with your neighbors as you're Passing by hey how's it going I'm your Neighbor down the street and and you Find out real fast who you can rely on Um it it's it's an innate skill that we Have where just a few minutes of Conversation you learn a lot about a Person and that goes both ways yeah That's a fantastic advice Yes and and then without without Sounding too much like a hammer looking For nails Um ultimately
In the Moment of Truth We should always be ready to have our Defense tools ready and we should be Willing and capable to Eliminate to annihilate an existential Threat yes yeah and I like to rely on The gray man look to where not only are You unassuming and your house looks Unassuming uh it because you can't have A fortress and even if you do have a Fortress that becomes more of a Target And so even a una U.S embassy can be Easily overrun they've got military Guards on on standby if you get enough People you can overrun it so don't be That Target that everybody's looking at Hey that house right there they've got Lots of money you can tell by their Decorations you can tell by looking at The house that they've got lots of money That means I'm going after them as soon As things start falling apart so don't Be that person everybody hates the rich Guy well uh two quick comments one the Best fight is the fight that never Happens you know that's right alive Remove yourself from that situation and Number two I get right back to the Original topic of of hardening it's Common here in Florida to have hurricane Shutters and they are heavy duty metal Some of them are you know electronic That you control but other ones you Manually close them and lock them
Nobody's breaking a window or a door to Get into your house without expecting a Tremendous amount of effort making a Tremendous amount of noise making a Spectacle of themselves so if you travel For work if you're gone away for any Extended periods of time hurricane Shutters is a winner it's it's a really Good way to harden your property but Before we wrap up for today uh tell the Survival dispatch audience a little bit About y'all's YouTube channel anything Outdoors with Steve some of the content That you guys are putting out there our Goal from survival dispatch is to Disseminate information so people can be Self-sufficient and that includes Directing people to channels like y'alls And helping you all get some more Tractions so yeah go ahead and do like a Your own selfless promotion Like myself okay well anything outdoors Of Steve we typically rely on just Hiking uh so we're getting out there Into the woods we're doing everything we Can to disconnect from society uh so We've slowly expanded on this channel And we've kind of done similar aspect of What you've done where we've got lots of People giving us video and so we've got A guy that I work with he's been giving Us some bike racing videos where he's Going around tracks and crashing so We've finally come called them crashing
With Colin he likes to be called Reckless But we've slowly expanded on this too to Where we're starting to do a Preparedness mindset videos as well Um I mentioned it before where I'm going To be Showing how to hook up a full house Power inverter and so I'm going to be Addressing that video here pretty soon And how to hook that up and what it Looks like and it's a little bit Different from your standard inverter Where it's just this little guy this is A 240 volt and even though it's a low Wattage it can handle quite a bit and This thing's about 80 pounds and it's Just a monster but so I'll be showing How to hook that up and what to use for Those hookups and what to plan when Would you like to make a trip here to Florida To there's about 13 000 Watt hours of Battery sitting behind me Yes I know and and see my mindset I was Looking at some of those devices like That where where you've got this Portable unit where you can just bring It wherever and it's got a thousand watt Hours and that's what you have to break Everything down to is Watt hours so you Can kind of have an actual understanding Of the work so the Watt hours are the Work uh so you can compare that to a
Light bulb 100 Watts you know your drill Is 1500 watts or whatever it may be you Know hair dryer is 1500 watts microwave 1500 watts that'll tell you how long That device will run for an hour so if Your battery is a thousand watts of Capacity that's it you know that's That's the maximum it doesn't matter how Fast you draw it out to some degree Because there is losses in efficiency The faster you pull it out but uh beyond That it's that's just what's contained Within it Um so I decided to build my own Well I was just going to say yes oh good Well I was just going to say since You're an electrician and we're a little Bit off topic but that's okay Yeah I think that we should do another Follow-up video on grid down you know We're first world country okay third World power grid and you you've got you Know you're connected to the Grid or You're off grid most people fall right In the middle where they're susceptible To grid down so power outages caused by Everything from Mother Nature to emps to Uh vandalism And we're going to see more and more Instances of grid down and they're going To last longer and longer quarter Million people in Upstate New York and Massachusetts you know still have no Power from a nor'easter that went
Through and so the cool thing about grid Down preparations is that you could buy Something like you just mentioned a Thousand watt hours And buy another and you can horizontally Grow it instead of buying a vertically Stacked system where you blow the budget All one shot right you can spend a few Thousand dollars and here's something Else cool that I'll just mention You could buy one of these battery Backup units that allows you to chain Them together daisy chain them together And each time you buy a component for it You buy a cheap ass electric or solar Panel for less than a hundred dollars And you claim your thirty percent Federal uh tax credit on it and you get It on the whole thing you spent three Thousand dollars on the battery ninety Dollars on the solar panel but you get 30 off all of it so there's a good ways Before that cost yep yeah yeah that and That's that's really right now with the Tax credits the way they've got them set Take take advantage of it you know Really you can because uh a lot of times They want to see it tied to the grid Somehow to where it's rolling the meter Back and that involves a whole another Cost but uh I think the way it's written Uh you might be able to get away with Just exactly what you were talking about Where you have a solar panel charging
Your battery bank and you might be able To get that tax credit right there so if You look at the way it's written yeah You can get it I've been involved pretty Close on projects small large everything In between with the solar tax credits And it's actually the 30 federal tax Credit has been extended out to 2032 and As long as that's one solar component Everything else it's on that purchase You get the 30 credit it extends to your Roof on your house for whatever the Footballer system is so it let's just Easy numbers you had two thousand square Foot of roof and a thousand square foots Covered in solar panels and you had to Replace your roof at the same time that You did the solar panels you get 30 Percent off one thousand square foot of Roofing as well on your taxes so that's Actually an area where I do have a fair Bit of hands-on experience both Commercial residential here in Florida But uh that's a great topic for the next Time we get together Um everybody have a look down in the Description there's going to be a link To uh y'all's uh YouTube channel Anything outdoors with Steve and I Appreciate you all showing some love Enjoying their Channel thank you for Having us on absolutely thank you for Having us on camera it's been great we Appreciate it we look forward to the
Next time thanks y'all [Music] Foreign [Music] [Applause]
