I’ve been prepping for over twenty years now, going back to my days as a field volunteer for FEMA when I was barely old enough to drive. After that, I spent a good stretch working ambulances as an EMT, then went into the military as a medic, where I ended up attached to a SWAT team doing what’s called TEMS work.
Basically, I was the guy who patched people up if things went sideways during a raid. That job put me next to some of the most detail-obsessed people I’ve ever met, and one of them, a guy named Dale, stayed a close friend long after we both moved on to civilian life.
Dale came out for the Fourth of July this year. Burgers on the grill, kids running around with sparklers, the usual. And like it always goes with two old preppers catching up, the conversation drifted from fireworks to food storage to, eventually, home security. I made the mistake of telling him I felt pretty solid on that front. He just smiled and asked if he could see my back door for a second.
He Didn’t Even Use a Tool
I figured he wanted to check the deadbolt. Instead, he pulled an old gift card out of his wallet, slid it into the gap between the door and the frame, gave it one firm wiggle, and the door popped open. The whole thing took maybe ten seconds. My kids were still lighting sparklers in the yard behind us, and Dale had already let himself into my house.
That door had a self-locking latch, the spring-loaded kind that clicks shut on its own when you close it. Dale told me flat out those are some of the worst locks you can have on an exterior door, because the latch itself is angled and springy by design.
A deadbolt doesn’t have that angle. It’s a solid bar that slides straight across, but plenty of houses, including mine, rely on that spring latch as the only thing keeping the door shut when nobody’s paying attention to lock the deadbolt too.
The Card Trick Wasn’t Even the Scary Part
What really got me was watching Dale’s face while he did it. He wasn’t showing off. He looked almost bored, like this was something he’d seen a hundred times on the job.
He told me stories about houses his team hit where the back door popped just like mine did, and how that’s often exactly how burglars get in too, except they’ve got a lot more time to try it than a SWAT team clearing a room in seconds.
We walked the rest of the house after that, and honestly, it turned into one of the more humbling afternoons I’ve had in years.
…but plenty of houses, including mine, rely on that spring latch as the only thing keeping the door shut when nobody’s paying attention to lock the deadbolt too.
This Is the Training Dale Actually Used
Reading about home defense only gets you so far. At some point, you need to actually train for the moment you hope never comes – and that’s exactly what the Special Forces Home Defense Academy is built for.
It’s run by Terry Schappert, a retired Green Beret who’s since become a public face for tactical training, hosting shows on the History Channel and Outdoor Channel. This is coming from someone who’s had to make these calls for real.
Inside this exclusive class, you’ll learn:
- How to read your own home the way an intruder does, spotting the weak points before anyone else finds them
- The positioning and movement drills Special Forces use to move through a space without getting caught off guard
- How to turn ordinary household items into effective defensive tools when a weapon isn’t within reach
- What to do in the first ten seconds after realizing someone’s already inside your home
This is training built to actually stick, so when it matters, you’re not thinking, you’re moving.
What really got me was watching Dale’s face while he did it. He wasn’t showing off…
My Windows Were Basically Open Doors
Dale checked every window on the ground floor and found that half of them had those flimsy little slide locks you twist to lock, the kind that come standard on most builder-grade windows.
He showed me how a thin flathead screwdriver, pushed between the sashes, pops that lock in seconds without breaking any glass.
The Garage Door Opened With a Coat Hanger
This one made me actually laugh, because it was so simple, it was embarrassing. My garage had one of those manual release cords hanging from the opener motor, the kind you pull if the power goes out and you need to open the door by hand.
He bent a wire coat hanger, slid it through the gap above the door, hooked the release cord, and pulled. The whole garage door came up like nothing was ever locked. He said this exact trick shows up in police reports more often than people would guess.
That coat hanger trick stuck with me enough that I asked him if there was anything else I should be reading on it. He sent over a piece by Jason Hanson, an ex-CIA officer, that backs up exactly what he showed me: the garage is one of the weakest points in most homes, and intruders know it.
His recommendation was to set up an early warning perimeter tripwire, something that flags movement before anyone even reaches the door. You can read more of his home defense advice here.
The Key Under the Rock Wasn’t Hidden From Anybody
I’ll admit this one stung a little. I kept a spare key under a fake rock by the flower bed, the kind you buy at a hardware store. Dale walked straight to it without me saying a word. He said those rocks are almost always a slightly different shade or texture than the real ones around them, and anyone casing a house for even five minutes will spot it.
My Alarm Sign Wasn’t Fooling Anyone Either
I’ve got a sticker on my window for a home security company. Dale asked if the system was actually active or if I just kept the sticker up after canceling the service years ago. I went quiet for a second, because that’s exactly what happened.
He told me experienced burglars know which brands of stickers are commonly left up long after the contract ends, and a sticker with no matching keypad light or camera visible is basically a tell instead of a deterrent.
The Sliding Door Was the Last Straw
We ended up on the back patio, right by the sliding glass door to the dining room. Dale gave it a look, then lifted straight up on the handle while pulling it toward him, and the whole door popped clean out of its bottom track.
Turns out a lot of older sliding doors can be lifted off the track entirely if the rollers are worn down even a little, which mine clearly were after years of the kids running in and out.
He said this is one of the more overlooked entry points on a house, because homeowners lock the latch and consider the job done, never realizing the latch was never the weak point to begin with.
He also pointed out something I hadn’t thought about in years: the bushes along that side of the house had grown tall enough to block the view from the street. Good for privacy while I was drinking my coffee out there, sure, but it also meant anyone working on that door had total cover from neighbors or a passing patrol car.
My friend said people casing a house look for exactly that kind of blind spot before they even look at the lock itself.
What He Told Me Before He Left
By the end of the walkthrough, Dale sat down with a beer and gave me the short version of everything that actually works, instead of just telling me what didn’t.
- Deadbolts: Full one-inch throw, into a reinforced strike plate, secured with three-inch screws long enough to bite into the wall stud – not just the door frame. A deadbolt anchored only to the frame will still rip out under a solid kick.
- Windows: Add secondary pin locks alongside the factory slide lock.
- Garage release cord: Loop a zip tie or a locking clip through it. That one change means a coat hanger through the door gap has nothing to hook.
- Hidden keys: Stop hiding a physical key at all. A keypad lock removes the whole issue.
- Sliding doors: Drop a security bar or a cut-to-fit dowel rod in the track, and check the rollers once a year.
- Sightlines: Trim back anything taller than waist-height near ground-floor doors and windows. A blind spot for you is cover for someone working on your lock.
Then I asked him what resources online could teach me something you don’t find anywhere else – that kind of knowledge he’d just taught me.
He said the systems could wait. Cameras and sensors are only useful once you know what you’re actually defending and against what. Otherwise, you’re just bolting technology onto blind spots you haven’t found yet.
What he told me to read first was Fran Greene, who’s written a handful of books in the space, but the one he pushed hardest was Guerrilla Home Defense. He said it’s less about products and more about learning to think like the person trying to get in. Things like running your own home security audit and picking up the guerrilla mindset he’d basically just demonstrated on my back door.
His point was that the card trick, the coat hanger, the fake rock – none of that is exotic knowledge. It’s stuff you can train yourself to spot once you know where to look, and that’s what the book is actually for.
I ordered it before he’d even pulled out of the driveway. If you’re wondering where to order from, go on www.prepperliberty.com and check out a preview of the book.
The One Change I Made First
I didn’t fix everything that week. Some of it took new hardware, some took time. But the very first thing I did before Dale even left my driveway was pull that fake rock out of the flower bed and put a keypad lock on the back door instead. It felt small at the time. It’s the change that’s let me sleep the easiest since.
Every house has a version of my back door. The lock that seemed fine until someone who actually breaks into houses for a living showed you otherwise. You don’t need a SWAT team to check yours – you just need to look at your own place the way someone trying to get in would, before someone actually does.
You may also like:
Special Forces Home Defense Academy by Terry Schappert: Review
How To Set Up Invisible DIY Traps Against Intruders (VIDEO)
Home Security after the Collapse of Society
10 DIY Skills Worth Learning Before the Next Economic Downturn
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