In a real emergency, it doesn’t matter whether you are bugging in or out, you may need to be warned of intruders. Today many of us sit at home with the doors locked, window closed and air conditioning keeping the temperature under control. After a disaster, we may have to keep all our window open, to try to stay cool. This eliminates some of the security we normally have. If you have people, who are trying to take advantage of the situation by looting you may need to rig up some early warning systems.
Fortunately there are many simple ways to give you early warning of intruders. Dogs are great, one of the best early warning systems. Often smaller dogs are more alert and will be quicker to bark. Get your dog ahead of time and get to understand your dog’s reactions. With a bit of training your dog can be a very effective early warning system. In addition, depending on the type of dog they can discourage prowlers.
One of the simplest early warning systems is to set up tripwires. Tripwire systems are very simple to put up and use. You just have to be sure that the tripwires blend in well with the surrounding. Some types of fishing lines works well, you can get fishing line in different colors.
Fishing line should blend in.
These can be used at your home, bugout location or in a campsite. They can be as simple as a tin can hanging on a line with rocks in it and trip wires. Because my hearing is not very good, I recommend cowbells. You can often find them in thrift stores or garage sales and they make lots of noise. I recently saw cowbells on sale at a local feed store for $2 each. Depending on the size of the cowbells, they can be quite loud and may scare someone off. Just remember if you have one tripped you need to make changes to your layout, they may come back.
Using YoYo fishing traps for early warning systems.
They are a spring-loaded wheel with approximately 12 ft of 60 lb test line with a swivel on the end. For most uses, you tie the reel to a tree or other solid anchor point. You then stretch out the line, which turns the wheel compressing the spring. When you get as much line as you want out, there is a small latch that you place in one of the notches in the wheel. When the line is disturbed, it trips the latch and the spring-loaded wheel reels in the fish. You would normally add more line to the trap.
YoYo fishing reels or traps
However, they have an alternate use. They will work well as early warning systems. Simply take a can full of rocks and stretch the string across the area you wish to protect. Set the string at ankle height so that any disturbance will trigger the YoYo fishing reel. You can add fishing line to lengthen the string. When the YoYo fishing reel retracts, it will cause the can to fall or shake, warning you that someone is in the area. There are many other ways that you can use this to trigger a warning, even using it to trigger electronic devices.
A jar hanging from a door knob
Another simple alarm that can be used in your home or even a motel room is to put an empty glass jar upside down on your doorknob. This will fall (and make a loud noise, except on carpet) should someone turn the doorknob. (Warning- the bottle can break leaving glass fragments on the floor). A soda can filled with loose change balanced on the doorknob will make a lot of noise if someone attempts to enter. Windows also easy to trap with cans of change or jars.
You will notice that these are all noise making devices; I am not recommending any devices that can cause bodily harm. These are just a few of the many possible ways you can rig early warning systems to help protect you from intruders. Today we have just discussed low tech methods, in the future we will post an article on higher tech methods.
