ASSEMBLE YOUR OWN EDC DECOY KIT

When you travel outside your home, you are exposed to a vast network of threats. At any moment, you may face collisions, robberies, Identity and information theft, assault/battery, or freak accidents. Many of these issues are mitigated through preventative action and contingency plans. We mitigate vehicle collisions through careful driving and insurance. We mitigate assault by minding our business and de-escalation tactics. I do not see many people talking about mitigation of robberies or theft. The best case scenario in a robbery is to just comply and give the thief what they want if you are not trained to handle an armed threat. I recently developed an anti theft decoy kit for myself for when I travel to prevent a massive loss of funds that may strand me.

THE PROBLEMS

In a robbery, the goal is to use threat of force to convince you to give up something. The threat can be of empty handed battery such as getting choked or punched, a blunt weapon like a bat, an edged weapon like a knife or machete, or a projectile weapon like a firearm. All of these have and are used to intimidate someone into losing valuables on a daily basis. You may not be able to choose which threat you will face, but you can take preventative measures to lessen the impact of the event.

I know, I know, "I should be allowed to wear whatever I want without people harassing me". I totally agree that in a utopian society, you should be allowed to wear whatever and be able to not feel threatened. However, there is a clear and present danger when you go outside and expose yourself to the world. People are watching and criminals are looking for cues that tell them you have something they can use.

The criminals are scoping you out and profiling you to see if you have something of value and if you seem capable of defending it. They will weigh the risks and options and see if you are worth victimizing. This is your problem, and you must mitigate this as much as possible. This is not something you can outsource, and it is a fundamental responsibility for a human being to realize the world is never completely safe for them.

THE SOLUTIONS

You need to make sure you are actively profiling the areas you are going. For example, get an idea of the situation in a gas station parking lot as you are pulling in. You may decide to just drive through and find somewhere else to get gas or refreshments if you see behaviors of loitering by large groups, which is a sign of gangs marking their territory or setting up to make a hit on a customer or target of opportunity. I have had to do this on a number of occasions in large cities where law enforcement is actively hindered and criminals control the streets.

​Let us look at the process of a robbery step by step and evaluate how you can mitigate some of the issues individually.

1. PROFILED FOR VALUABLES: Do not wear expensive jewelry or flashy items that LOOK expensive when you are out travelling. This includes how you dress, your vehicle make and condition.

2. PROFILED FOR AWARENESS: Look around often and make eye contact with individuals. Profile people you see and look for threat indicators, hand locations, dress iconography, and duration of stare. The book Left Of Bang can be enlightening.

3. PROFILED FOR PHYSICAL CONFIDENCE: Hold your head high and stand tall. Walk with confidence. Sometimes looking angry is a good thing. Perhaps a look that says "Bring it on" is a good deterrent.

4. APPROACH WITH SURPRISE: Look over your shoulder often and keep scanning your surroundings.

5. INTIMIDATE WITH WEAPON: At this point, if you are trained to defend against an armed threat, you can begin the process of addressing that issue. If not, you will want to look around for witnesses and then look at the attacker. memorize the weapon they used, their physical dress, facial features, unique identifiers, tattoos/piercings, etc. You will need as much detail as possible for reporting to law enforcement after the fact.

6. TAKE ITEMS & GET AWAY: If you have a wallet or valuable that they want, you can delay giving it to them to buy time to memorize their physical details. You can drop the valuable to cause them to have to grab for it and thus buy more time for you to focus on their dress.

I listed 6 steps here and offered some solutions to mitigate the threats and allow you to detect the threats ahead of time and even deter them before there is an issue. Do not take these as guarantees that you will not get robbed. Some people will just rob you in public in a bad part of town because the police are not allowed in the location or their enforcement capacity is limited. And don't count on the public around you to do anything other than video the event and laugh or feign outrage. This means you are the one responsible for being aware of the locations you are going ahead of time and do research into locations.

In some cases, you may be doing everything right to deter a robbery and still get picked. In this case, your best bet is to cooperate and observe and report. This will make the situation pass faster, but also a bit safer. The last thing you want is to attempt to defend yourself just because you are armed, only to find out the hard way that drawing on an armed attacker is not a recipe for survival without a lot of training. This is where the decoy anti theft kit comes into play.

THE ITEMS

The first set of items that you will need to get for your decoy is cash. Not real cash, ​but play money that is real close to looking like real money. As you can see below, these bills look legit from a glance, which is the goal. I got my fake money from Amazon.com.

The next items on the list is fake credit cards. For this, I got fake blank cards off of Temu and credit card stickers separately. I had to manually place the stickers on the cards perfectly to look organic and pass a scrutiny test if someone should get a peek in public. The idea is that the cards stay in the wallet but it will look realistic from what peeks out.

What I also have done is kept around really old credit cards that have expired or are voided. Old gift cards that have been spent are also in my wallet as well. If you wish, you can actually have a prepaid cash card for pulling out at gas stations. I personally have a debit card that holds up to $200. The idea is to have that as my sacrificial card in case my wallet gets swiped. I need to have a source of ID and a source of money in my wallet. For this reason, I use an ID that is valid like a state ID (or use an old drivers license) and one debit card that is valid, along with only up to $40 cash. This significantly lessens the impact of a robbery if all they want is my wallet, which is the most common request. 

On my person, I wear a nylon web belt that is hollow and has a zipper for access and storage of items, specifically double folded cash. This is where I store about $200 in cash, mainly in $20 bills. This is a great way to hide a majority of your cash on your person so you can safeguard it best. Say you lose your wallet and they take your vehicle too? You will need to be able to get home still and have funds to help yourself. Also, you may need money on hand that you can access at any time. You can simply go into a private location like a bathroom and take off the belt to access extra cash, if needed. I got this belt off of Temu for a small fee of $10. I imagine you can easily find this type of belt on eBay or Amazon, but for a bit more. The belt buckle is plastic and cheap, but it works for its purpose. Consider something like this for keeping your cash under cover.

The best way to carry valid ID and cards on your person is by having a low profile wallet, like the one shown below. The one I have was acquired years ago at SHOT show in a swag bag being given out by TRU-Spec. You can get these types of wallets really cheap, or even MAKE one out of something like duct tape. At the worst, you can just rubber band your cluster of cards together with your cash and stash it in a sock or a hidden compartment on your person.

Keep in mind that you may need your ID and monetary sources on your person in case you lose your vehicle as well. Also, you are not above the law, and you may get pulled over or get wrapped up in a Law Enforcement investigation. This would be a good time to have your IDs on you. All I am saying is to take measures to safeguard the real valuables.

The last item I want to introduce you to is the magnetic covert key holder I got from Harbor Freight. This magnetic key holder is perfect for carrying extra cash in a hidden location on the bottom side of your vehicle. The magnets are quite strong and they hold the box securely. The box is not large enough to hold a card, but you can easily hold about $400 in $20's folded up in a Ziploc bag. These boxes cost about $20 and are a worthy investment. You don't even need to use the magnet, but rather can just hide this inside the vehicle somewhere secret so you have hidden money on hand for an emergency.

THE SYSTEM

Your anti theft items need to be used as a system. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. You want to have the ability to use your money for things like gas at the pump or refreshments. However, you want to have your money also split up and have redundancies and safeties. Once you use up half or three quarters of the money on your sacrificial card, reload it from your phone, if possible. Once you spend $20 out of your wallet, go to the bathroom and get another $20 out of your belt to replenish that cash in your wallet.

Stay accountable and stay attentive to your available money as you would stay attentive to your gas tank if you are on a long road trip. Hopefully you wouldn't wait until you are 3/4 of the way empty before you refuel. I would hope you would be more responsible and attentive. This is how you make this system work. You may increase the inconvenience, but the trade is for greater security. If the likelihood of theft is high, then these types of precautions are not a bad idea.