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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dennis5151, post: 8599043, member: 90596&quot;]I lived in the country for decades. Your fears are justified.&nbsp; Be paranoid and prepared. The more prepared you are, the less afraid you will or should be. Preparation reduces fear.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Long stories ahead....</p><p><br /></p><p>I am comfortable with a $28 per month simpisafe security system.&nbsp; To get to my safe, you pass three cameras uploading to the net.&nbsp; I have the doorbell camera to alert me of any doorbell activity or motion on my porch.</p><p><br /></p><p>I prefer to have coins delivered to my door with a required signature or if they have very high value, to my friend at a local business. His secretary will sign and keep the package for me.</p><p><br /></p><p>I prefer UPS Ground or FedEx vice the mailbox.&nbsp; I have found even UPS will leave a package requiring signature at your door.&nbsp; Go figure.</p><p><br /></p><p>My wife has a really stupid two-pound yip dog, barks at everything unless it is caged.</p><p><br /></p><p>We have a pistol for each adult in the house.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>When away from the house, I carry a pistol.&nbsp; I do not trust semi-automatics, they jam.</p><p><br /></p><p>I keep most of my high dollar coins in the local bank deposit box to protect them from tornados.</p><p><br /></p><p>I keep a spare pistol in my safe, along with pepper spray and a large knife sitting on a shelf near the safe.&nbsp; I do not answer the door to a stranger unless I am holding my loaded pistol.</p><p><br /></p><p>The paranoia may be due to having been stalked, and nearly robbed / mugged two or three times.&nbsp; Depends on how you define the terms. </p><p><br /></p><p>First time I was working overseas on an island.&nbsp; It was a very hot, dark and humid night.&nbsp; I was walking down a deserted country road which ran a mile along a cemetery with a high block fence.&nbsp; The other side of the road was forest.&nbsp; I was about a third of the mile along the fence when three guys in a car passed and stopped thirty yards ahead.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I never broke stride and pretended I was holding a knife or pistol at my side as I continued to walk; never swinging my right arm or moving my right hand.&nbsp; I did move my left hand and arm to wipe sweat from my face.&nbsp; They kept pulling ahead, trying to get the courage to act. They finally left.&nbsp; Great bluff.&nbsp; If they had left the car, I would have gone into the forest and waited.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The second time I was nearly robbed was when my prospecting partner and I were twenty-seven miles off the highway looking for hidden silver bars in the ghost town of Vekol.&nbsp; It is on the Pima Reservation.&nbsp; We were unloading his jeep and I turned to see a guy walking towards us.&nbsp; He had a shotgun on his shoulder.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I put my hand in my jacket pocket, cocked my pistol and warned my buddy.&nbsp; I started to move behind the jeep to put it between me and the stranger when he drew down on me.&nbsp; He ordered me to remove my hand from my pocket.&nbsp; I told him that was not going to happen.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>An interesting and colorful discussion resulted.&nbsp; My sailor experience with colorful words and phrases came in handy.&nbsp; I finally convinced the stranger to put his shotgun back onto his shoulder.&nbsp; He did so and invited us to his camp for coffee and prospecting stories.&nbsp; He ended up joining our prospecting team for the day. </p><p><br /></p><p>He was an ex-con, no automobile, looking for treasure and starving to death in the mountains.&nbsp; He told us there are a lot of ex-cons in the mountains looking for lost treasure and gold.&nbsp; That explains the four times my camps have been plundered and only food and a couple cooking items have been stolen.&nbsp; I never sleep in camp when I am in the wilderness.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just before dark we gave the ex-con most of our food, and we went north to the Estrellas for a treasure hunt near Hidden Valley. </p><p><br /></p><p>A couple years later, someone fired a warning shot at me in the Tonto range south of Seven Springs. The warning was clear, the bullet hit a tree, exactly head high, eight feet to my left.&nbsp; I never flinched, I did leave the area and went back to town.&nbsp; I returned with four other prospectors.&nbsp; We were there to hunt him down or at least show we will not be intimidated.&nbsp; No sign of the shooter.&nbsp; Crazy dangerous world.&nbsp;&nbsp; You never know when someone insane or someone desperate or just dangerous is close to you.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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