How to Protect Your Car from Becoming a Target After SHTF

Source: https://www.askaprepper.com/

Our current iteration of SHTF proves that there are always people out there ready to take things of value that do not belong to them.

You needn’t scroll very far on social media these days to see either a smash and grab or a flash mob looting a department store.

Of course, we are expected to believe that crime is not so bad because most of these thieves are never caught and even if they were they would likely not be prosecuted.

Follow that road far enough and you can see how flash mobs could wind up out front of mansions when all the stores are emptied out. You can see how your vehicles and possessions could very quickly become a target.

3 Ds of Defense

We have talked many times about home security. However, many of the same concepts can be applied to securing any area or item that is important to you.

Related: How to Make Your House Invisible After SHTF

To protect your car, you can also apply the 3 D’s concept.

Detect

Even in an SHTF situation you can depend on things like lights and cameras. Solar powered motion detecting floodlights are affordable and effective. They can even be considered a deterrent for thieves who aren’t very bold. Battery powered cameras can be recharged using powerbanks or gas generated energy if you are thrust into an off-grid situation.

Once you notice someone casing your property or even approaching your car, you will realize that it is time to consider deterrents or even actively defend the vehicle.

Deter

There are a number of ways to deter people from targeting your car or even going near it. Not just the use of car alarms but also motion alarms around the area where your car is kept. These can go a long way in deterring thieves.

A deafening alarm will not only alert you to an intruder but others who live around you. Assuming they are allies then you will be able to converge on a threat.

Human traps like tanglefoot and trip wires could also be a great way to deter people from approaching your car. You can learn here how to make off-grid automatic traps against looter and intruders.

You could even consider parking your car behind a locked high fence or even electric fencing.

Defend

If your deterrent methods are still not keeping your vehicle safe, then it becomes time to defend your property. Depending on the nature of the situation this might best be a time to use less than lethal means like pepper balls loaded into a paintball gun. In a world without rule of law you might have to consider lethality as those targeting your car might be carrying guns, too.

Concealment

Probably the best method for protecting your car from becoming a target in SHTF is to make sure that the car is concealed from the public eye. This could be in a closed garage or even parked behind your home and covered up by foliage, or some kind of camouflage.

If your driveway is empty but your car is parked behind your home and covered with something like a large ghillie blanket, then it might even be hard to discern from a drone’s eye view above.

You could even build a false structure to conceal your vehicle. A shed can be repurposed as a garage for a smaller car. A barn can be a place where your car is parked. Learn from this guide how to build an invisible root cellar and bunker in your backyard for cheap.

Even digging a short driveway that leads into the ground and can be covered with a tarp will give you some great concealment. Run some gravel over the dugout path for your car and you will be good to go.

Concealment truly favors the creative.

When “Roads = Death”

There could quickly become a time when driving your vehicle or even walking the roads in your area could become deadly.

Dave Jones the NBC Guy, a lifetime LEO, Army, and Emergency Management professional teaches that in a collapse or wartime situation “Roads = Death”

So, the key to getting the most out of your vehicle before a situation like that occurs is to transform your car into a bugout vehicle so that you can deploy as soon as things get ugly.

If you have a bug out location and vehicle to get there, then you can protect your car from becoming a target by removing it, and your family, from the situation altogether!

Related: 37 Things You Forgot to Add to Your Bug Out Bag

When the roads = death you also must take into consideration what you are using that vehicle for. Now, a pickup could be of great value for hauling things in your community.

However, heading out on a long distance trip will undoubtedly make a target of you and your car. So, consider how and when you plan on using your vehicle in SHTF.

How to Turn your Vehicle into a Bug Out Vehicle

Why wait till doomsday to create a reliable bugout vehicle? Transform your vehicle now so you can escape the chaos of someone targeting your vehicle in SHTF.

A robust bugout vehicle might also be easier to defend and to protect from attackers should they target your means of transportation.

By upgrading things like the locks and windows to make entry much harder, you will both be creating a better bugout vehicle and protecting your car in chaos.

If You Don’t Have a Bug Out Location, You Need to Read This (Video)

Upgrading your tires and on road tools and safety measures is another great move. You should have kits for jumping the car, changing tires, and even towing, if the vehicle is capable.

Storing secure preps and weapons inside your bug out vehicle is an important step, too. These are not things that will be targeted because only you will know about them. Still, they will give you the ability to defend your vehicle or to get it on the road and get away from those who might target your car in SHTF or your home or your family.

Your car will be targeted in an SHTF situation. That is assuming that it is not targeted before that. Protecting your vehicle is not something to daydream about in this day and age.

Each night across America, brazen criminals test the door handles on cars, they bring saws to cut off expensive catalytic converters, and even steal vehicles outright. Without a doubt we have already reached some low level of SHTF and cars are being targeted.

No better time than the present to put some of these practices in place.