Posted: 1/30/2009 10:01:13 AM EDT
|
Living out in the country, you learn pretty quick that daily trips to the grocery store, gas station etc, aren't an efficient way to operate, the driving distance, time and gas use is prohibitive. Get it all done at once, if possible.
Further, since the few army surplus stores around here are not convenient with respect to the freeway system, I tend to stock up during visits there as well. No real worries, right? I got stopped coming home last Saturday. Cop said I didn't dim my headlights when he passed me going the opposite direction. I told him I hadn't had my brights on since, well, all night, that my Jeep had a wide shallow spread on the light pattern, for offroading, and that sometimes people flick me thinking my brights are on when they aren't. He took that in stride, checked out the headlights for himself, bright and dim, then wanted to see my driver's license. I don't live in a mandatory disclosure state, but I was CCWing, IWB, at 6 o'clock, real close to my wallet, and he came across REAL jumpy, so I gave him the standard. "You should know I have a CC permit, I do have it on, and it is very close to my wallet, how do you want to handle this?" He had me step out, felt my CCW piece thru my coat, then my wallet, had me carefully pull my wallet with my back to him, "for his safety and mine". Once out, he looked hard at my permit and DL, again, no real problem. So why this post? As he cut me loose, heading back to his car and I'm stepping into mine, he played his light over the cargo area in my Jeep. Nothing was said, I went on my way, he went on his. The camoflage bags given to me at the surplus store definitely got his attention. Had he tossed the car, he'd have found several sets of camos, web gear, gloves, hats, cold weather gear in general, all military, in pretty large quantity. He'd have also found some pretty hardcore DoD field manuals. First Aid for Soldiers, Improvised This and That, Manual for 1911A, Incendiary Yada Yada, SOF Insurgency Manual, etc,. etc. No...I'm not one of THOSE types of survivalists, I tend to prep and then quit worrying, insurance in place, like the US Constitution just like it is, take spiders and mice out to release unharmed, never kill anything that's not trying to kill me, etc, but...I read voraciously, have a HUGE library, big parts of which pertain to survival and Emergency Management, including DoD pubs, and I just grab whatever field manuals the surplus store has when I go there. I have no current plans to build a particle accelerator, or modern surgical suite, but I have How-To books just the same, books to me are real wealth. On a dark country road, some cops might not understand all that. No matter how safely and legally you drive, you still lose taillights, and can get stopped for just about anything. Idiots can scratch your paint or warse at any time. A full vehicle search always has to be a possibility in your mind. Had this gone another way, I could see a whoooooooole buncha cop cars out there that night. I could see a very quick follow-on warrant and home search too. That would have turned up the media's standard "arsenal of high powered assault baby killers and child splattering ammunition". Before that happened, such a home search would have first come across my two main sets of LBE, undergoing rehab and re-organization, the primary reason for my visit to the surplus store in the first place. Not just any old baby killing survivalist, no, I'd have been a baby killing race baiting hating survivalist READY FOR COMMENCEMENT OF IMMINENT COMBAT. I like to think I have the resources, and voluminous documentation, to survive such a year's long legal process, and come out smelling like a rose. But "year's long" is a key ingredient there. MUCH better to avoid such an invasive, long term detriment than to beat the rap. No real advice here, no solutions, just a head's up. It might happen, it might have happened to me, its up to you all to assess risk and act accordingly. Maybe space out your buys, consider the condiition of both your home and vehicle at during potentially sensitive purchase windows, maybe just recognize a quick in and out may not be efficient in terms of getting all errands run in one trip, but it's also less risky. Something to think about, now you know. |
|
I have nightmares, real night waking nightmares of this. The government can say you have rights, 'til they think your and extremist, or worst, terrorist prepping for war.
I don't carry in the car but have it close by, I keep the in car BOB INSIDE a subwoofer cabinet that I can reach with in minutes. I also hide quick essentials behind the cabinet. If they go into my home and find the E.B.R. it would be confiscated. I trimmed down my arsenal to bear essentials and BUGs for this. I don't have funds to fight the year long acquittal so I play on the safer side. As far as food and water, well I live in earthquake country and that's just the smart thing to do  . I keep heavy duty chemical masks that arent tactical looking but more commercial and make sure they fit bio filters.
I also try to use excess ammo and hope to keep my head down in a BI BO sitch to use a minimal supply. Suburb prepping sux but heck, Protus dwells in an apartment! Actually that might be easier in many ways, save for food storage space. Totally the opposite of most preps here, but the BOL, ranch in the middle of no where, well that's a whole nother story! |
|
I have exactly five combat grade firearms, two longs, a shotty and two shorts. I WISH I had an "arsenal".
However, my combat arms are...fully accessorized, and always ready. Additionally, i have all the trial and error firearms it took to distil down to the essence, plus acquisitions from well meaning friends and family that just take up safe space, and between that and the ammo, a case could be made I am some sort of threat. I AM a threat, to anyone who tries to hurt me or my family, otherwise the world has nothing to fear from me. But truth does NOT trump perception, and the point of this thread is to help others realize what I've realized over the past week. The average person is not likely to see things the same way we do. If they did, they'd be us. Instead they will see EVERYTHING through their own historical filters, and SOME of what we do can look VERY suspicious to non preppers. Understand that, understand random chance is always a factor, and you're all the way where I wanted you to be when I started this thread. |
|
I don't tell anyone what to do or how to run their lives.
My thinking, now thats it's happened: where do I go from here? What do I do? First things first, the headlight thing got you pulled over. I'd fix that situation pronto. Not saying they are illegal, or anything like that, but, if people flash you and a now a LEO has pulled you over because of bright beams, I'd try to make it go away and avoid any future issues. Adjust them down a bit. Adjust you driver side beam to the curb a little more. Trade vehicles with your friend, and have him drive past you, see what it looks like from the perspective of other drivers. The camo bags, as well as anything we may be transporting that we don't want to advertize, should be covered, or out of plain view. slip them into standard grocery bags, and it looks like you are on your way back from the weekly food shopping chore. Low key is the order of the day. The uglier things get, the more blending in I want to do. That's just me. |
|
Good point jeffers_mz,
Like you I not a fan of go often and buy a few things. How ever we live pretty close to all the things we need. The wife stays at home and only goes two places everyday. The school and the gym. I am always out in the field working. But your point of being out in the country I understand. that how I grew up. Like most here it seems to be getting a little bit overboard with the perception that many people make of prepers. Also many would not understand the use of 1000' of 550 or wool blankets or all the other things we stock up on. If you did get pulled over by an leo they might think wtf. There are lots of us but there have been some nuts that have given us a bad stereo type. Point being keep it out of site and out of others minds. No need to advertise. |
|
The headlight thing was just a made up reason for stopping you for a fishing expedition. I.E., I stopped you because I saw you cross the center line back there, ect. I get out of work at zero drunk thirty (when the bars close here). So getting stopped for a fishing expedition is on my mind every night.  |
|
Quoted:
The headlight thing was just a made up reason for stopping you for a fishing expedition. I.E., I stopped you because I saw you cross the center line back there, ect. I get out of work at zero drunk thirty (when the bars close here). So getting stopped for a fishing expedition is on my mind every night.
+1 on that, in my work I've gotten to know most of the LE's in my area, they still stop me pretty regular like while running drunk interdiction on the rural roads around where I work. it's usualy, "Oh, hows it going ND, just get off work?" "alright have a safe trip to the house" |