Federal prosecutors charged two men last spring over a home repair racket that ran through four states. The FBI counted more than two dozen victims, nearly all of them elderly, and more than a million dollars gone.
The crew knocked, said the roof or the driveway needed work, and got themselves onto the property. Prosecutors say the men damaged the house on purpose, then came back to the owner with a bigger bill for repairs the homeowner never needed in the first place.
Not one of those doors was forced. Every one of them was opened by somebody being polite to a stranger, and that is what these crews count on. They pick older folks for a reason, since a man raised to be courteous has a hard time shutting a door in another man’s face.
That works today, when you can still call the company and check. Three weeks into a crisis, there is nobody left to call.
6. The Child Who Comes Up Your Door Alone
A boy of eight or nine walks up alone and says he cannot find his dog. He is scared, and there is a fair chance every word out of him is true.
That is what makes him useful to somebody watching from the treeline. A child needs no coaching and no story, since he only needs to be pointed at a house. Whoever sent him learns how wide your door opened, how long it took, and whether the person who answered was standing there by herself.
So the question is how you tell one from the other without turning away a kid who truly needs you. A few things separate them, and none of them require you to be unkind:
- A lost child looks at the house, while a sent child keeps glancing back at the road or the trees.
- Ask his last name and his street, and he should answer without hesitating.
- A coached child tends to repeat his line the same way twice, word for word.
- Watch whether he tries to move you off the step, since a genuine kid stays put and talks.
- If a vehicle sits idling out past your mailbox, you already have your answer.
Helping him does not mean opening up. Water through a cracked storm door is still water, and a blanket handed over a chain is still a blanket. You can call his parents from inside while he waits on the step, and you can call the sheriff instead when no parent answers.
What you never do is give him information. Your name, how many people live there, whether your spouse is home, what sits in the pantry, all of it goes back out to the road with him whether he means it to or not. Keep him in sight, keep the door between you, and keep talking until an adult you trust arrives.
5. The Utility Man Who Needs You to Step Outside
“Sir, we’ve got a pressure problem on this line, and I need to check your meter around back.”
That sentence is the whole Philadelphia job, and it works because it sounds like a favor you are doing for the street. A vest and a clipboard run about forty dollars together. Real crews do not show up unannounced, and a true emergency brings police or fire out with them.
So the answer through the closed door is the same every time, and it costs you nothing to say it: “I don’t take unscheduled visits. Give me the work order number and I’ll call the company.” A legitimate man will hand you a number or tell you to call, since he gets paid either way. The other kind starts pushing right then, telling you it is urgent or that he only needs a minute, and the pushing is your answer.
The call itself takes about two minutes. Use the number printed on your bill rather than any number he gives you, because a card in his hand and a phone he controls are both easy to fake. Nassau County’s police chief made that exact point after three of these in one county, since one of the men there carried something that looked close enough to a National Grid badge to pass.
The best thing you can do is give them a reason to pick somebody else. An for that you need all of these items:
- Night lights along the driveway, so nobody gets close without stepping into the light
- Fake camera with LED floodlight
- A sign on the fence saying there is a dog on the property
- A dog house sitting out in the yard, with a chain and a bowl by the door
- Door and porch alarms that go off the second somebody tries a handle
- Infrared motion sensors covering the yard and the blind side of the house
- A tripwire alarm across the back, so you hear him before he reaches the porch
- An alarmed door stopper for the nights you want something between you and the hallway
Every one of these tells a stranger the same thing, that this house is going to be more trouble than the next one. And if you would rather not hunt all of it down piece by piece, the anti-looter kit puts the whole lot together for less than most people spend on a single camera. Have a look and see what your porch is missing.
4. The Wallet You Never Lost
A man holds up a wallet and says he found it at the end of your driveway. He asks for nothing at all, so your instincts have nothing to push against.
Look at what accepting it requires of you. The chain comes off, your hand goes out past the frame, and your eyes drop to the wallet instead of staying on his face. He built that sequence without making a single request, and he picks the moment it happens because he holds the thing.
The prop changes depending on who runs it. Sometimes it is a clipboard that needs a signature, and sometimes it is a covered dish held in both hands so you almost have to reach. A package too big for one arm does the same job.
My father-in-law spent thirty years around men who sold things door to door. He told me the good ones never asked for anything on the first pass, because asking gives a person something to refuse.
3. The Fellow Looking for Somebody Else on Your Road
A man comes up looking like he belongs on this road and asks where the family with the blue barn lives, or whether you know the folks in the white house at the bend. Pointing feels like ordinary neighborliness, so hardly anybody thinks twice about stepping out to do it.
Almost nothing he gathers has to do with those neighbors. He learns whether you know the people on this road by name, which tells him how fast word travels here and whether a stranger gets noticed. He learns how far off your step you were willing to walk for a man you had never seen. And should you mention that the folks at the bend went to their daughter’s place last month, he now knows about an empty house nobody is checking.
So the move is to answer without giving anything up, and you can do that while still sounding perfectly friendly. “I couldn’t tell you, I keep to myself out here” ends it in six words and leaves him nothing. When he keeps at it, a simple “who’s asking?” puts the work back on him, because a man with an honest errand has a ready answer and the other kind starts improvising.
Three things to hold onto in that conversation:
- Never confirm that a house is empty, or that anybody is away, even about people you barely know.
- Never say who lives at your own address or how many, since that is usually the real question hiding behind the polite one.
- Get his plate, or at least the make and color, before the truck is back on the road.
Then call the neighbor he asked about and tell him a man came by looking for his place. Ten seconds on the phone, and now two houses are watching instead of none.
One more thing worth asking yourself afterward. Was that truck behind you coming back from town? A man who follows you home and then knocks asking about a neighbor already knows exactly which house is yours, and knowing how to react if you suspect someone is following you home is what keeps him from ever getting that far.
2. The “Church” Group
Four or five people come up the drive on foot with one water jug between them, saying they collect for families at a church in the next county. Nothing about them looks dangerous, which is most of why it works.
But whatever they gather has to get hauled somewhere afterward. No church sends men on a nine-mile walk to carry canned goods back in their arms, since a truck does that in one trip. They came with nothing to load, so collecting food was never the errand.
Their feet give it away before the story does. People who truly need help stay bunched up and keep facing whoever they are asking. A crew here for another reason drifts apart across the yard while the talking goes on, and one ends up at the corner where the back door shows.
That spreading is where the conversation ends. Step inside, throw the lock while they are still on the grass, and tell them across the yard to get back on the drive. Explaining yourself on the step only buys them more minutes with your door open.
- Call out to somebody inside, whether anyone is in there or not, since a group like this counts heads first.
- Stay on your own step, because the man asking questions is usually just holding you in place.
- Hand out food at the end of the drive, so nobody has a reason to come near the house.
- Tell your neighbors the same day how many there were and which way they went.
Crews like this scout far more than they hit. They work a road, note which houses answered and which stayed dark, then come back knowing more than they did before. Four minutes in your yard decides whether you make that list.
And they take rejection badly! A group like this turns pushy, then manipulative, then worse if the talking goes wrong. The Forbidden Psychology chapter in this book covers something I have never seen in a prepping title before: how to say no without provoking a man into escalating, and how to stay calm while your hands are shaking. Survival was never only food and guns. Most of it is using your head to get your way and walk off intact.
1. The Fake Police Officer
Somebody knocks, and there is a badge held up at chest height. Most people open the door before the hand comes back down.
A uniform buys a stranger what no story can. It stops the questions you would ask any other man on your step. And it gives him two things at once, permission to come inside and permission to tell you what to do.
He says there was a break-in on this road. Or he needs a quick look through the house. Saying no starts to feel like something only a guilty man would do.
A real deputy will not mind you checking. He gives you his name and badge number, then waits while you call the department. That happens to him plenty. The fake one gets irritated instead. He says there is no time, or he starts in about obstruction, and he has just told you who he is.
There are 5 hidden signs that tell if the officer knocking on your door is real or fake, and they are worth having memorized before anybody tests you on them. Duty belts run heavy with gear, while a fake one sits half empty. Look at the patch on his sleeve and make sure it names an agency that covers your address. Look past him for a marked car too, because nobody gets sent alone to a serious call.
After learning all of these useful tricks, please make sure you do this every time you lock your door. You’ll thank me later!
How to Make Sure Scammers Keep Walking Past Your Home
These scams have run all over this country already, and they are as old as front doors. When SHTF, they will run far more often than they do now. Nobody answers 911 in that stretch, and the man on your porch will know it before you do.
Think about who is home on a Tuesday afternoon. Your wife. A grandkid. Four seconds to decide whether the badge is real, and no phone left to check it with. Whatever you got wrong that day, you find out about after the door is already open.
So, ask yourself this: Is your house a scammer magnet?
A Green Beret with 25 years behind him walks you through the Special Forces Home Defense Academy, starting with the one small detail on an ID that separates a real badge from a costume. He names the three questions a neighbor asks right before he turns looter, so you know which house on your road to watch. He points out the thing sitting in plain sight on most properties that tells a burglar to pick you.
Then it goes past the door. What to do first when footsteps come up the stairs at four in the morning? How to sweep your own rooms when somebody is already inside and no help is coming? How to string an early warning across the yard so nobody gets near the porch unannounced?
All of these answers sit inside the Special Forces Home Defense Academy, and most of them you will not find on television or anywhere online. The next enrollment opens today and closes at the end of the month, and there will not be another session until next year. Claim your spot before the doors shut.
You may also like:
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Why Physical Fitness Is the Most Overlooked Survival Skill (Even for Seniors!)
How to Avoid Being Scammed Online
Anti-Looter Kit Review
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