Editors note: This content has been generously contributed to Survival Dan by Holly Deyo. The moral of this story…when it comes to prepping, never trust anyone until you have done a basic background check on them. Betrayal is the order of the day!
A few months ago I wrote an article for people with few recourses and needed alternative bugout ideas. Many people today have a difficult time paying off credit cards, mortgages and car loans without buying a second home – a run-to place. For many, this concept is so far out of reach that it stretches the imagination to Pluto. Like most people, we live a comfortable existence, but buying a second home while remaining debt-free is somewhere in Crazyville. It is to this group of people we speak.
When Stan was shown the “ideal” location for us in the U.S. while we still lived in Victoria, Australia, in order to meet this dream-vision, we had to start over financially. Painful? You have no idea. Stan had lived outside of America for 30 years, and Australia’s version of retirement did not transfer to the U.S. Consequently, when we were moved back home in 2001 – 6 months before 9-11 – financially we were like someone in their late teens. While many of our friends were retiring, we ramped up our work hours. Not fun? Believe it! Did we obey Stan’s God-given vision? Absolutely. Since we do not partake of government entitlements, in order to remain “free”, it was incumbent on us to work horrendous hours to earn our way.
Related article: When The End Unfolds, Some Allies Will Make That Mad World Bearable; Others Will Bring The Madness To Your Doorstep
Now fast-forward a decade.
We’re located in the southern portion of Colorado. We’re newbies to this area. No roots, no high school or university reunions within an arm’s reach. In essence, we are outsiders in every respect. So we understand what it means to live in a “foreign area”.
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This guy did something very sharp and inventive: His cellar had all the benefits of our great-grandparents’ root cellars, the American Army war bunkers, and the secret Viet Cong building method with none of their drawbacks. Watch the video and learn more!
As people’s job requirements and personal circumstances dictate, folks will be less “rooted” to a certain locale with less long-stand ties, and more prone to becoming a transplant. That’s where we found ourselves a little over 10 years ago.
Building Community, which was the name of our newsletter started 15 years ago, its concept is still forefront. Most people will not be able to relocate somewhere else, somewhere out of the reach of gangs, Google’s all-seeing eye, NSA’s ever-watchful satellites, and the UN’s globally all-inclusive vision. You – are – on – their – radar.
Now let me back up a bit.
Six months ago, we met an Oathkeeper and fellow prepper. He and his wife were in the same position as ourselves and lived about a mile away. We became fast friends, dined at each other’s home, shared prep philosophy and finally, discussed what each of us had done prep-wise. At their request, we gave them an itemized list of our food stocks the next day and waited for them to reciprocate. After this exposure, three weeks went by with no word from them.
Giving them their just due, the man had undergone minor surgery and we understood that he was in the recovery mode. After he was home and feeling OK, there was still no communication. We had laid out our cards, but they shared nothing and with a poor excuse as to why. Do we feel dumb or what!
Now we were totally exposed. Vulnerable. As a result, we’ve had to move ALL of our supplies elsewhere – off-site – because we had mistakenly trusted.
Are we an anomaly? Hardly. Did we feel stupid for being supposedly well-informed preppers? You bet!
So here’s a second thought folks….
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We have friends here on our street, in our neighborhood. Maybe we don’t share all common interests. Maybe we don’t get together weekly for dinners. Maybe they aren’t all Christian. BUT – and here’s the real deal – we’ve got each other’s backs. We’ve been to each other’s kids’ weddings and graduations, funerals, block parties, yakked on the phone about nothing, worried together about this and that and forged ties that supersede all else. For example…
Also read: Overcoming the Greatest Prepper Weakness: The Individual versus the Community and a Plan for the Future
Thanksgiving Eve, when people are cozied around their fireplaces, sipping wine and relaxing with family, we got a worried phone call from next door. A neighbor’s new baby dog had gone missing an hour before. The word that a friend was in need spread like wildfire. Without any planning or asking whatsoever, 6 families spread out through the neighborhood, over acres of land in pitch blackness on foot armed with flashlights searching 3 hours for this missing dog. Tragically, we did not find him, but the unspoken bond of helping said more than words convey.
These folks aren’t necessarily into prepping. In fact, most aren’t. However, we share a common bond of friendship of having each other’s back. Maybe in the days to come, in times of us vs. them, of helping those who’ve done nothing yet all pulling together, maybe this is the message we are supposed to consider. It may not be so much of what you’ve personally stored, where you’ve got to go for refuge, but more importantly, it is the essence of community. You never know what others bring to the prep table and it may be just what is needed.
Survive and Thrive
Background checks only give up those who have been caught. The ones to fear are those who have never been caught.
Me and others like minded, never gave out details on what we own or store. I never heard of anyone doing this until now in this article. OPSEC is what James Rawles writes about on his site.
Yeah, why would someone give out all that info……….seems dumb to me……naive……….smart enough to prep….dumb enough to talk about it
Yes, I too have learned a couple hard lessons.
In my quest to find like minded people to live in our property and help out when SHTF, we took in a single person to live in our separate quarters. Both incidents ended badly and like the story above, we now worry that they “ know too much about us.”
We are now waiting for the right person(s), and not putting that decision in our own judgement but God’s.
I would tell them to go stay in a motel, my house is not set up for sleep overs.
I agree. My spouse, however, seems so “proud” of the fact that I have been putting things back now for years, preparing, that he likes to boast about this, and when I hear him, he studders…….
Then, when I explain that it is NOT SAFE for “us” for him to be doing this, he explains, he knows, and he does not do this……
We are doomed!
I heard this story before, but it is worth repeating. I feel sorry for the Deyo family to be fooled like that. I hope they moved away from the guy. You have to do it. A mistake can COST us so much……
Why is there this compelling need for people to gush out personal information about themselves to people they don’t know? If the need arises for like minded people to share information about prepping and you don’t know them that well , simply ask questions of them and say you are just learning, even if you have done some storing and prepping DONT tell them what you have done, just ask questions about what could be done or how to do it. If thier answers are inline with what you have done or thier experience matches up with what you have done, then give them a LITTLE information,, but not a lot. Do not tell what your plans are and much you have and what you have. Until you know them better,remember they are not family. Slow down.
Rooster: sensible mature people do not go around telling even close friends how much money they have in CD’s, bonds and stocks either. Or their house payment. Or talk about their sex life as mature adults. It is hard to follow a prepper’s website that do stupid things like Deyo did. I will stick to Rawles and others. Best not to tell relatives either about your preps, etc.
God is our strong refuge! He is our stength and our salvation!
Prep and be prepared to share! That’s what Jesus would do!
I have no fear! I don’t worry! I pray I will be a blessing to those in need..because I have FAITH in Jesus Christ my Lord who has taught me not to fear!
I Am His and He is Mine!
God Bless!
My next communication to the family that took their info and ran with it, would be that if TSHTF, in my stores I also had a bullet with their name on it and I sure hope that I never have to use it.