Putting it under the mattress

My grandparents in Sweden kept their money in a trunk in their bedroom.  A truck hit grandpa at age 95 while he was on his bicycle. Grandmother at age 80 took in a border.  He strangled her and took the money.  This is true. Back in 1929 most people did not have any money to speak of, it was the wealthy that took the hit. President Hoover was still promising a “chicken in every pot”-seeking reelection. Franklin Roosevelt was elected just at the point of no return, and tried a great many innovations to restore the economy, all the while adversely attacked by the opposition party.

Today the wealthy continue to gain, the less affluent are doing worse, and it is not going to get better. The big difference between the class distinctions is that the population in the 1930’s was about 146 million and mostly rural who could grow food. Today it is only about 3 percent rural-the remainder are consumers living on plastic debt wherein almost all food is by ship and airlifted in. The depression coming is not the same as the Great Depression. All of the dynamics-except massive debt is different.

So what are you going to do with a few bucks in the bank? If the bank goes under like the 4,000 did during the 1930’s you will after a lengthy government process be reinstated with your deposits if the bank is a FDIC member. The protection for deposits was $100,000.00 and now is being raised to $250,000.00. In order to claim your deposited money you will have to show proof of deposit. I strongly suggest you keep a hard copy of your deposit information with your bank on a daily basis.

For those who wish to convert the plastic money into cash you have several options before the Government declares a “Bank Holiday”, or limits a percentage to what you can draw out at one time. This was done during the Great Depression with war bonds; war stamps were also unable to be cashed in. Although this may be history, it does create a legal precedent that the President may use again.

Some trusting souls plan on placing their cash in a bank safety deposit vault. Well it is safer than Grandmothers trunk, yet it is illegal to place cash in a safety deposit vault, as the Government wants cash circulating. Also you could be charged under the Rico Act as a money laundry-drug dealer, and the money could be confiscated. Even today if you are stopped on the road and you have a large sum of cash, the police officer can confiscate the money and you will have a dickens of a time trying to get it back.

Let us assume you are a husband and wife placing your life cash savings in the safety deposit vault at the local bank. One of you dies, the bank knows it as they read the obituary every day and freeze the box. You are allowed to withdraw the will and last testament only. As soon as they spot the cash-well it is better off if you both died.

So we are back to putting it under the mattress. During Y2K the biggest item sold in 2000 was a home safe. The problem in buying a safe is that you do not think like a criminal, and the majority of safes are tin cans to the criminal mind.

Let us consider what is in the market place to store your valuables. The most reliable against break-in thieves who must operate very quickly while you are working or in church is an in floor safe that is buried and supported by steel reinforced concrete. These are very difficult to get open, as they are a vertical steel tube and a screw closing thread that has a 4-tumbler combination and a key. These can be drilled with a hydraulic pressure drill but only by an experienced locksmith type person who knows what they are doing and has lots of time. These safes may be secreted in basement flooring and basement concrete walls that are reinforced.

It is illegal to set up traps for the criminal by common, case, and statute law. A case in point: an experienced locksmith is wary about opening an old time safe; say 75 years and more of age that you bought at a yard sale. It was common years back to place cyanide in a saucer and sulfuric acid in a glass, which was attached to the safe door. When opened the clouds of poison would quickly kill the criminal. As a matter of fact along these lines, Fort Knox KY, our gold reserve, has imbedded glass cyanide and sulphuric acid in the walls and under grounds vault ways for the miscreant who would be stupid to break in that way.

Today there are a number of pepper gas canisters you can employ to discourage the would-be criminal, if he succeeds in opening your safe door.

Large “Gun Safes” are popular and certainly warranted if you have oversize items or a great deal of valued clutter. Tredloc is a Roanoke Virginia based manufacturer who may still provide local delivery as opposed to other manufacturers for which you must bear the cost of shipping. Although I like the Tredloc manufacturer I do think that a better safe may be found under the Fort Knox label at a hefty price however.

Gun safes are either a inexpensive steel, piano hinged, locker room type key lock offering minimal protection, but may be a time deterrent to the break and grab criminal They are an imperatives purchase for firearms to protect you from civil liability in case of Columbine kids, and not keeping “dangerous instruments” unavailable-but that leads us into a different article. Technically these are “cabinets”, not safes per se.

The larger, fire insulated 1000 lb. Gun safe with a 4-tumbler combination and rotating multiple door bolts offers good protection. They are of course best bolted to the floor and wall-preferably concrete. If you can cut out a wall in the concrete and install the safe inside the now reinforced wall you have a better option, like the floor safe it is surrounded and the access door is more solid steel. Look for the drill resistant label. Keep in mind a couple of big country boys can just wheel it out of the house unless it is bolted down.

Prices run from $350.00 for a small gun safe by Sentry to several thousand dollars for a Fort Knox. Purchase a gun magazine and you will find lots of ads. There are many gun safe brands available in hardware stores, Sams Club, gun shops etc.

Now this brings us to practicality for most readers with a few dollars and some jewelry, maybe a favored rifle. Guns seem to be a big target in the break in goals at present. Anything with a serial number needs to be recorded and filed away. The police can recover re sold guns quickly if you have a serial number. Your Home Owners policy may cover up to a thousand dollars on guns and jewelry, but it is a consideration to have an Inland Marine Policy (expensive) for additional coverage. Photographing the stored items in advance is also proof of ownership.

If you have some serious items and money to stash inside your home or office I would suggest you contact a long time friend of mine in Pulaski area who is a very competent locksmith and installs commercial grade safes. Contact Friend’s Lock and Key, Inc. 540 980-4682. Billy knows this business and will sell and install the best.

Now we will make a good home made storage safe.

This is not a new idea but it is an improvement on the original. Purchase a ten-foot tube of PVC or CPVC Vent lightweight pipe, and two end caps. Let us assume you purchase a 12″ diameter pipe. You will need to purchase a second tube of this plastic pipe a bit smaller in diameter so it can slide down inside the bigger pipe. The end caps on the inside pipe will be larger, so actually try it out in the store so it slides inside easily.

Now you will need to cut the two pieces in half, but not in proportion. I would suggest for the outside pipe to be 5’ long and the inside pipe 4 feet long. This is if you are storing firearms due to their length, otherwise the piping can be much shorter and easier to work with since you will be digging a hole to bury the home made safe.

Let us assume you are storing rifles. The outside tube bottom cap will be glued on to the big tube with the appropriate PVC or CPVC pipe glue. Follow directions on the can of glue. Now do the same thing in gluing the inside pipe on one end only.

Take some white rice, say half a pound and pour it into the smaller tube or purchase a desiccant dryer pack(s) from www.cheaperthandirt.com . Slide “Rust no more” sox over the cleaned and oiled firearm, insert into the smaller tube, and barrel down to keep the oil from packing up in the breech. Place the smaller tube into the larger tube.

You will perceive at this time you will have to pull the inside tube out (easily) from the larger tube. Screw a simple handle onto the end cap as the tube will be heavy for fingernails.

You are best advised to glue the inside top cap in place for long-term storage. Now purchase a cheap hacksaw and Gorilla™ tape it to the inside tube so that when you retrieve the inside tube you have a means of opening it in dire circumstances.

The outside tube is also glued tight and waterproof for long-term storage. If the tubes are in a dry area, such as in the basement, barn, woodshed, doghouse, and there is no water seepage, you need not glue the caps, as their very tightness in fitting will preclude most moisture.

Now locate a place to secrete the safe. A dry place is good, perhaps inside a pigsty, outhouse, in a fence line etc. Make measurements where it is as we all forget things.

Digging is best with a tractor posthole digger. Otherwise it is shovel and clam shell posthole digging time. You can bury it vertically or horizontally. Place at the head a cheap Chinese hand axe in a heavily greased plastic bag to dig out and bust the top open in dire circumstances in the frozen night. In a vertical situation, some pieces of Styrofoam keeps the freezing dirt off, save a little for natural vegetation to regrow upon. Big flat rocks usually freeze to the ground.

Most, if not all, of the food can “safes”, ice cube tray, freezer packs, electrical wall socket safes, bolt in between the studs wall safes, are all well known and are junk. Thieves’ spend hours discussing and reading about the latest “feel good” for homeowners.

Best back up is a brace of large protective security dogs-TRAINED. Establish a neighborhood watch system. This works. As for me, well I do not worry about money. When the old age check comes in-it’s already spent. I do not save money, but I invest in alpha goods that grow food, keep me and my wife warm, and my dogs happy.

Next week let us take a look at coughs, bronchitis, and flu from an herbal perspective.

Contact me at: back2theland@swva.net

COPYRIGHT: 2008 Back2theLand, Mark Steel