JANUARY 1st, 2023 | GRANT JOHNSON

WHat It's Like To Be Burglarized And How To Protect Yourself

It's a horrible experience and you can't count on the law.

I live near Calgary in a small rural town. It’s a safe community. Solidly middle-class. People keep their lawns cut and the streets clean. Neighbours know each other well (for better and for worse) and genuinely look out for one another. Crime is low, but present, so we installed a home security system along with outside security signs. Motion sensor flood lights are in the front and when we left on a vacation a little while ago, we had a couple of wifi-cameras in the house along with timed lights to make it look like someone was home.

And yet, we were massively broken into and severely robbed.

The bad guys showed up at 3:00am and presumably rang the doorbell. When no one was home, they kicked in the door and set off the alarm. They then left the scene and waited and watched.

The alarm monitoring service tried to call us, but it was 3:00am and the calls didn’t go through to our phones (do not disturb setting). They called the RCMP, but the RCMP refused to respond to an alarm with only one trigger. We had other family members on our phone list, but the monitoring service just decided to stop calling people and left it at that.

The ringing alarm in the house times out after five minutes (municipal bylaw), so when no one responded, the burglars came back. They then proceeded to thoroughly go through our house looking for whatever they wanted. They found the keys for both our cars and loaded up the vehicles with our stuff and drove away.

Deciding that it was too lucrative and easy to pass up some more shopping, they soon returned and re-entered the house, this time going through the inside garage door. This tripped the garage door alarm a second time at 4:00am. The monitoring station basically did the same thing all over again. RCMP refused to respond. The monitoring station finally got a hold of my brother-in-law, but he assumed it was a false alarm (he wasn’t informed about the previous alarm) so he went back to bed and intended to check the doors in the morning.

After a couple of hours, the bad guys left and returned a third time. This time they scoured the basement and rummaged through the storage room. They finally wrapped up their shopping spree around 9:00am and drove off with our cars loaded to the max. (Both our cars were later found trashed with the interiors coated in traces of fentanyl and crystal meth. Both vehicles were written off.)

When I received the phone call that our home was broken into, a range of poisonous emotions ran through my blood. Rage, dread, anger, wrath, grief, humiliation. It’s a rollercoaster of darkness.

We stayed with my mother-in-law for over a week while getting things back to a reasonable level of order. Dealing with the insurance company was surprisingly positive. They were professional and helpful and generous. Cleaners and organizers were paid to help us out and repairs were quickly made. The process of cataloguing everything stolen was painful and dragged on for months, but my wife made a mission out of it and we came out all right by the time the cheques were settled.

The police showed up and filed a report. That was about the extent that we heard from them. They tried to console us, but the idea of apprehending the criminals was a non-starter. Forget your television dramas of dusting for fingerprints or following leads. The police were immediately bored by the situation and basically did nothing but file the paperwork.

The town I live in has about 6000 homes and in 2021 there were 15 break and enters. This gives you about a 1 in 400 chance of being broken into. In 2022 the break and enters have soared…current data isn’t published yet, but by June of 2022 there were already double the amount of break and enters at 30. That puts you at a 1 in 200 chance of a break and enter. Who knows what the final number for 2022 will be? Crime is rising and it’s not just break and enters. Vehicle crime is also on the rise.

In our neighbourhood, shortly after our home was robbed, people started getting outdoor videos of thieves driving around in the night checking car doors parked in driveways in order to see if they could get into them easily. One of my neighbours caught one of them in the act and jumped in his truck in hot pursuit. He called the RCMP while he was following them on the highway, but the bad guys realized they were being chased and drove recklessly away in order to escape.

Another neighbour of mine left his garage open for a moment while he stepped inside his house and a strange car pulled up nearby. The guy ran into his garage and tried to steal his car, but couldn’t find the keys so instead he stole a drill and went on his merry way. I was witness to this one and got the license plate of the car as it drove off. I called the RCMP and it turns out it was a stolen vehicle. They took some notes and left. Never heard from them again.

I have to admit, watching police antics during Covid radicalized me. Arresting pastors and kids playing hockey and crushing people with horses on Parliament Hill during the Freedom Convoy disgusted me.

This video of RCMP officers pulling people out of their house because they were over the 6-person limit during the Covid-era haunts me.

I used to be a “Support the Blue” type of conservative, but no longer. I understand that cops have a hard job and I’m not opposed to the police in general, but I’m aware that we live in a state of anarcho-tyranny and even the good cops are handcuffed by the system. They aren’t going to save anyone or solve anything and even when they do, the “justice” system undermines their efforts with woke non-sentencing and catch-and-release policies.

What does this mean for you?

If you want to protect yourself, your family, your home and your property, you need to be far more proactive than mainstream society suggests you should be. A 1 in 200 chance of a home invasion isn’t nothing, and we know that precautions and resistance can make a huge difference in reducing those odds. I had a monitored security system, flood lights, wifi-cameras, signage, deadbolts and timed lights…and it wasn’t enough.

Now, granted, life is such that sometimes shit happens no matter what you do; we have neighbours that have been demoralized by our break-in. ”All these cameras and systems and stuff and what good did it do? If they want to get in, they’ll get in.”

Don’t resign yourself to victim status. Be smarter and more prepared, not defeated and resigned. In our case, the bad guys were lucky. A couple of slight changes in how things unfolded and they would have been caught. We made small mistakes. Our security service made big mistakes. My brother-in-law made lazy mistakes, but the solution is to learn and adapt and, as Jocko Willink advocates, take extreme ownership.

And I am.

We fired our security monitoring service and stripped all our system stuff out of the house. We went with a new and better security company. I’ve got broken glass detectors, motion sensors, door alarms, doorbell camera, motion lights, a half a dozen light controls through my phone, more wifi-cameras inside and around the house, and a private security firm who will dispatch guards to respond to alarms if the monitoring station can’t contact anyone.

Yes, you’re correct. Writing this list out looks a bit crazy, but once it was all set up, life returned to normal. It’s not oppressive.

It is, however, expensive. This level of security is an irrational expense I have to bear due to our first-hand experience with crime. You, the reader, can incorporate various levels of this stuff to good effect without setting up a James Bond villain compound like I have.

I use these Wyze cameras that connect to my phone app to keep an eye on things and they’re pretty cheap (and good). Motion lights are cheap and available at Home Depot. Make sure you have someone to shovel your walk if you’re away in the winter. Connect with neighbours to clean-up flyers or mail on your doorstep when you’re gone. Put a security system sign in your window or lawn, even if you don’t have one—or better yet, just get one.

You can get good home security systems for a decent price. I would suggest going with either a big mainstream provider like Telus or a more expensive, higher end company that does only this stuff and are extremely hardcore about it. Likely a five-star rating will be found when you google “home security”. Either pony up for the expensive hardcore guys, or purchase a cheaper plan with a big, but dependable mainstream provider.

With our original system we went cheap, with some fly-by-night, piece-of-shit company for the monitoring and they had some kind of sub-contractor, sole-proprietor type guy install the equipment in our house. Massive fail.

Making an extra effort will help protect your home, but there’s a darker element to this story I haven’t mentioned. Our Wyze cameras captured these guys inside our house before they were able to identify that they were being recorded. Check out this image…

What’s that hanging around your neck, man? Looks like a knife. What were you planning to do with that if we happened to be inside the house after all?

It’s unsettling knowing that guys with knives have broken into our house even after the alarm went off. There are a lot of unanswered “What if” questions, like, ”What if my brother-in-law decided to get out of bed during that second 4:00am phone call and drive over to our house to take a look?”

He would have arrived at our house with no signs of distress and no vehicle in the driveway warning him of danger. He likely would have walked through the kicked-in front door and possibly been greeted by this guy.

What if these guys were high on meth and looking for a fight, even if we were home? Or, what if they rang the doorbell when we were home, but I was too slow to answer the door and they kicked it in?

What if upon seeing that someone was there they decided to rob us anyway?

Scary questions deserve scary answers and this is the segment of the article in which you realize that you’re reading alt-media and not some vanilla tripe you’d get from a mainstream source.

I have weaponized the inside of my home.

I’ve got bear spray in the nightstand. Now it’s technically illegal to use bear spray against a person, but hey, if it’s dark and you’re not entirely sure that the meth-head breaking into your house isn’t actually a grizzly bear, why not make the mistake? “Sorry officer, I thought he was a bear!”

I have also purchased some Monkeyknuckles. Brass knuckles are illegal in Canada, but this company makes their punchers out of carbon fibre. They’re great and if you are ever in a punch-up, having this to quickly slip on will give you an enormous advantage. Check out the brutal spiked ones. Ouch!

Using Monkeyknuckles is great, but you should know how to throw a punch with one. I’ve always made attempts to stay in relatively decent shape and have taken a variety of martial arts and boxing classes in the past, but it’s time to step it up for the new year. There’s a boxing club not too far from me I plan to begin frequenting. Being prepared to punch a bad guy into red pulp is good for the body, mind and soul.

I’ve also got a variety of knives, well hidden, but easily accessible (to me), all over the house. Again, you’re not supposed to use weapons specifically designed for defense against people that you would want to defend yourself against. It’s typical Canadian insanity, but obviously you’re going to use what’s available in a pinch. Therefore, rather than buying ninja-style knives or tactical crap they sell for these fighting purposes, use things like hunting knives or fishing fillet knives in order to have a better alibi.

I was given a replica Rambo knife as a wedding present, manufactured just like the real thing. If I get into a knife fight with a meth-head burglar and stab him to death, it’ll look a lot more reasonable doing so with a Hollywood replica that “just happened to be handy”, than something specifically bought for the purpose of stabbing burglars to death.

I’ve also put a hammer in one of my cars under the front seat. I haven’t bought one for the second vehicle yet, but they’ll be there “in case the vehicle goes off the road and into a lake and water begins filling up inside the vehicle and you run the risk of drowning”. You can use it to break the glass and swim to the surface.

Last, but not least, I’ve recently got my PAL card in the mail and will be going shopping very, very soon.

Now this might sound like way too much, but getting violated by criminals and failed by the system helps light a fire under your ass like you wouldn’t believe. Hopefully everyone can take some inspiration and apply it to their own lives.

Canada is changing and not for the better. Crime is on the rise. This is where progressives say, “Ackshully, crime is lower now than it was 30 years ago!” and yes, they’re correct, but since 2014 crime is indeed rising… and the more lawless Canada becomes, the more out of line society’s trash will get.

Don’t expect the police to do anything for you. Criminals increasingly understand that we live in a weak and lawless country. Couple this with an economy that keeps getting stomped on by Trudeau and you’ve got a recipe for increasingly bad incidents.

Emboldened bad guys + tough economic times = peril.

Give some time and energy to protecting you and yours. Make your home safe and make yourself dangerous. Take personal responsibility. Don’t count on the police for anything. Buy good house and vehicle insurance. Invest in some home security. Acquire some weapons. Stay in shape. And be prepared.

Always be prepared.