You can learn a great deal about the occupants of a home by what items are offered at garage and yard sales.  With the summer upon us and spring clean-up in full swing, many home residents elect to earn a few extra dollars by clearing out unwanted wares.  For those bent on gawking—and there are many—this is a long awaited ritual among the treasure seekers.  However, there are some genuine security concerns that should be taken into consideration before advertising and hosting such an event.

It is important to recognize that garage and yard sales attract attention.  Who among us has not made a U-turn or circled the block after seeing a makeshift sign offering direction to a ‘Huge Yard Sale’ or have highlighted a listing found in the local newspaper?

These forms of advertising are relatively inexpensive and usually serve their intended purpose, which is to attract buyers.  What they also accomplish is invite strangers to your home.  So, here are a few points to keep in mind when planning to make a few extra bucks this summer by selling items you no longer use or need.

1.  Consider partnering with neighbors and friends to host your sale during the same period of time. Multi-family sales attract larger numbers of seekers and enhance security for the sellers. You’ll have to select a large enough location that is suitable for everyone’s goods to be placed on display, but it also negates telegraphing to strangers who lives in a specific home.

This is especially important when infant ware and items used by children are sold. Continue reading →

The following information is in response to this question:

We have all heard media stories in the past about how women are killed just for their babies. What precautions should a pregnant woman take to protect herself from some nut job that might be watching her so that they can snatch a baby?

The first point to keep in mind is that while these types of crimes define new depths that some are capable of descending to, they are extremely rare when one considers the annual birth rate in the United States.  That being said, these crimes do occur and therefore it is important to understand this threat and take important steps to avoid becoming a statistic.

To begin this discussion, let me point out that by the very intent of the crime the period that an expectant mother is most vulnerable is the third-trimester. Since the perpetrator intends to masquerade the child as her own, she is not likely to put her assault plan into motion since it is preferred that the birth mother carry the child close to full term. This is an important point to remember, as it becomes the focal period for heightened security awareness, a point that will be addressed below.

The second most crucial timeframe is post-partum up until the newborn adds 10-15 pounds to its birth weight.  The reason for this is because as the child develops it becomes extremely difficult for the abductor to present the child as her own, particularly among family, friends and neighbors.

Taking the first point into consideration, practically all pre-planned criminal activities rely upon two critical components if there is to be any chance of success, namely; surprise and predictability. Speed is also important but generally less vital than the previous components. Our goal then is to deny criminals the element of surprise and to adopt patterns that make us less time and place predictable.

We are able to defeat surprise by fine-tuning our suspicious nature and embracing the sensual stimuli that accompanies it.  Everyone one of us has an example of feeling the hair at the nape of our neck stand-up.  Chances are if you can recall the exact instance when it last occurred, you where confronted with a situation that was abnormal to your personal level of comfort, that which looks, feels, tastes or smell foul usually is.  This is an example of sensual stimuli and is naturally occurring biological feedback that serves as a defense mechanism, call it a sixth sense if you like, but recognize and embrace it for what it is and the role it plays in our personal safety and survival.  There are numerous mental exercises that can put you more in touch with your sensual stimuli, and some are quite entertaining. For example, our Director of Operations has perfected a mental calculation by which he is able to estimate the size of large groups of people by focusing on a small, select group.  His accuracy is within +- 3% of the actual number.  He can perform this as a demonstration of the power of situation awareness.

Let’s now look more closely at the value of reducing predictability.  Ninety-nine point nine percent of criminals do not want to be caught -period!  Many take painstaking steps to survey their intended target in an effort to expose vulnerabilities that given their limited capability are susceptible to exploitation.  What this really means is that the criminal needs to determine when and where they will strike, avoid becoming predicable and you stay steps ahead of anyone that targets you.  By making matters difficult, the criminal will move on to survey another potential victim.

We can outline more day-to-day practices for any reader interested. Contact us here.