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You wont find me!
Anyone who has ever left for
vacation has spent time considering where in
their homes to hide their valuables. Well,
chances are that a thief has spent even more
time pondering where valuables are likely to be
hid. All things considered, a safety deposit box
in a bank vault is still the best place to keep
jewelry and other valuables, but there are some
places around your home that make terrific
hiding places for important items.
There are some places where
experienced thieves are sure to look, such as
inside top drawers, underneath any drawer, and
behind wall art in the den or bedroom. We
suggest you take care to avoid these obvious, or
rather popular, caches.
It's a good idea to wrap
items in plastic before stashing them. Most of
our suggestions are for small objects that can
be held in your hand. Take time to look around
your place for spaces where you can hide things
unobtrusively. You want places that are easily
overlooked and will not be disturbed
accidentally by a houseguest or neighborhood
pet.
The following suggestions
are less obvious places than the ones mentioned
above, but remember that a determined thief with
enough time will probably find what you have in
your home. What you're doing here is buying
time, hoping that any burglar will be disturbed
before getting to your good stuff.
Hide it Easily
Look for easily accessible
places, created with a minimum of fuss, which
are also easily overlooked by the casual
observer. Some good examples of these places
are:
- Bulk dry goods such as jars of rice and
flour can hide small valuables and be kept
out of the way on the back shelf.
- Condiment containers, such as mustard and
mayonnaise jars in your refrigerator, can
also hold small items.
- Aspirin or brown pill bottles inside the
medicine cabinet can be a good bet.
- Packages of frozen vegetables can be
thawed, and refrozen with items inside them.
- Tennis balls with a small slit
in them will return to their original shape.
Squeeze the ball to open and stuff, then
scatter it among others at the back of a
closet.
- Vacuum cleaner bags can hide baggies with
valuables inside them.
- Stuffed
animals can be cut open (gently, and not
around young children) and used as unlikely
containers. Cut along a seam, stuff and
re-sew Teddy before returning him to his
friends.
- Ceiling
light fixtures can be unscrewed, and small
valuables may be placed within the
electrical box underneath.
- Composite
"rocks" that have latchable,
enclosed spaces within are available through
mail-order catalogs. They can be placed
outside in the garden.
Create a More Permanent
Hiding Spot
These places require a bit
more preparation to become effective hidden
containers.
-
Book safe: glue most of
the pages of an old, uninteresting hardcover
book together. Use a coping saw to cut a
hollow area out of the middle. Drill starter
holes for the saw. Then glue the box made
with the pages to the back cover and let dry
thoroughly. Stash on your bookshelf among
other books.
-
Steps and flooring have
natural hollow spaces underneath. Carpentry
skills are required to effectively create a
seamless surface that escapes detection
-
Hollow core doors can
have sections cut out of the hinge edge to
give access to the space within the door.
Use the cutout piece as a plug
-
The tops of poster beds
unscrew. Hollow spaces can be drilled out in
the posts themselves. Commercial
wall and floor safes should be installed by
a professional, and are effective at
drastically slowing down the unprepared
casual thief.
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