Would you resort to looting in a SHTF scenario.

Define looting.

In rural areas many locals will band together and use local resources.

if you are a outsider you would have to be very careful.

Anyone from outside would be a Marauder/raider/looter.

Even locals or outsiders using TSHTF as a way to grab power would have a short life span.(setting yourself up as warlord)

Even going into a rural area and taking everything or taking what you want and destroying everything things you don't want will get you killed.

abandoned homes? are you sure.
if i have a home in a rural area and TSHTF i may hide out in the woods very close by where i have a defensible position but i have not abandoned the house.

Someone may have a bunker under there house and are keeping a low profile (only coming out at night)and the house may look abandoned.
Try looting that house and you would get a big surprise.

The locals may have forted up in a central location for protection and better use of resources and have patrols out to protect there homes.
Loot these homes and face a firing squad after a swift trial if they even take the time for a trial.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


While you do provide valid points you also display a fair amount of historical ignorance.

You seem to reject historical famines and what they lead to as simple competition of enterprise. All of these stories and rumors that you disavow have an element of truth. Historians do not label the Dark Ages of Western Europe as a selling point. Widespread famine and starvation eventually lead to survival at any cost.

Gridrebel is not making up horror stories to frighten people. Human beings have resorted to such desperate measures in the past and it would be unwise to discount these facts because some people believe we are more civilized than these actions of the past seem to be.

In addition to the topics that Gridrebel provided to you I would hope you look into the Thirty Years War in early 1600's Germany. The land was so devastated by the marching and counter-marching of armies that starvation reached a point were cannabalism has been documented.

The worst thing anyone can do in a SHTF scenario is to delude themselves to such a point that a person refuses to believe that such acts are possible. Given enough time and suffering those acts are probable.

reply to post by My_Reality


Now that is reaching.

Did I imply that cannibalism never happened? No! What I am saying is it was an isolated occurrence that didn’t affect a sizable portion of the population. Just like people have delved into cannibalism in the late 20th century. Everyone knows the cases that have happened around the US. But was it a regular occurrence? NO!

You are trying to imply that just because there was “reports of something happening”, and that it was “probable”…… That it was a regular occurrence that everyone had to deal with.

It is possible that a group of homosexual midgets in tights will go running down main street shooting up the town with black powder muzzle loaders. There may even be an isolated report of something like that happening somewhere. But will it be a regular occurrence? NO! Will everyone in the population have to deal with such stuff? NO!

In modern society, there has been reports of people eating other people. In the history books, it may say “There was even reports of cannibalism by certain individuals during the late 20th century.” Was it a daily occurrence? No. Did the majority of the population have to directly deal with a cannibalism incident? No. Did even an appreciable fraction of the population have to deal with one? NO.

Worrying about cannibalism during a SHTF event is like prepping for getting hit by lightning during a hurricane. Is there a possibility that you can get hit by lightning? Yes. But it is likely to happen to you directly? No, not really. Your preparations would be better applied to prepping for the wind that will blow you, and everyone else away. You know you are going to be affected by that. Diverting your attention to the lightning and becoming obsessed about it to the exclusion of everything else, is just leaving you open to the real threats of the storm.

The amount of time people put into worrying about cannibals and looters ransacking a city is just a waste of time. In a real SHTF event, if the population ever encounters such a situation, it can easily be rectified.

Just shoot the offending M’F’ers then throw them into a shallow ditch and be done with it. Get back the more pressing problems of the day.

There may be a couple incidents along those lines that will occur in a population during a SHTF event, but they will be isolated and will only affect a handful of people directly. Using such reports to imply that it was a daily occurrence all across the country, is taking the reports out of context, and blowing things way out of proportion.

Yes, such stuff may occur, can occur, and probably will occur. That is why people have guns, knives, axes, and blunt instruments. To shoot them, stab them, chop them, and beat them to death, and get on with life.

It is like the age old idea that movies portray of roving motorcycle gangs terrorizing small towns after a SHTF event.

Reality check here. The only reason motorcycle gangs can operate at all in a modern society is because the law abiding population at large is afraid of what the law may do to them if they take the law into their own hands and deal with the problem. So they just keep their noses out of it and let the motorcycle gangs go on about their business.

In a real SHTF even where there is no law enforcement and the population knows they are the only deterrent and there will be no repercussions, it will be a different story.

You know how long a motorcycle gang will last if it rolls into a town? How long does it take for the bug’s brain to go through his a$$ when a car hits him a 65MPH?

The word will spread through the community that a group is entering the town. People will come out with their hunting rifles and take up sniping positions. When the gang enters, it will be a turkey shoot. The gang will be lucky if even one gets out alive. The one with the highest head count will probably get a reward, or dibs on what the gang had with it.

Might have to resort to some IOU'ing, but hey I always pay my bar tab on time.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


Mr. Tranny has it.

Almost all the Romans survived the collapse of the Roman empire. Almost everyone in the USA survived the Great Depression. Even the wastage of civilizations like the Anasazi probably involved more people migrating out instead of genuine murder and mayhem.

When people begin to starve, they are overwhelmed with lassitude. If you've ever seen starving people, they tend to have little initiative or emotion. They sink into passivity, and their arthritis makes any movement painful.

Part of the reason the Nazis and Imperial Japanese starved their captives was psychological---it made the victims easier to control.

When the food trucks quit unloading at the corner supermart, the initial orgy of violence will subside very quickly. After only a few days, and the average looter begins to miss a few meals, suddenly they begin to look like victims of starvation you see in the infomercials.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


Boy, you completely missed my point. I did not say I was worried about cannibals or looters. I did not say it was a regular occurrence. Not at all. Please refrain from putting words into my mouth. I was pointing out that your dismissal of the situation as improbable does not make it impossible. In fact, the way you belligerently state that the situation would be solved by a few people with weapons is naive. Entire villages have resorted to such things in the past and no one that was a resident tried to stop them. Such things were prevented only when the usual law & order of the times was able to recover from the disasters that lead the people into such desperate measures.

Every situation that you have created in your reply to me is simply your imagination. A group of homosexual midgets? Come on.....get over yourself. I bet you did not even look into what I suggested. The devastation of the common folk during the Thirty Years War was so prolonged that acts of cannibalism and brigandage(Looting is the modern phrase) continued for years.

I had initially posted to provide people with a different perspective. By all means ignore what I am saying. In the grand scheme of things it matters not if you end up as dinner for a group of human scavengers trying to survive however they can.

I would loot a pharmacy, clinic, hospital, whatever I had too because I have a younger sister with Crohn's, my friend has Type-1 Diabetes, 40% of my Grandpa's heart doesn't work and he needs the pill to keep alive, and my Grandma has arthritis and osteoporosis. To keep my family and friends alive I would do whatever it took to get them medical care they needed. For food, well most of the people I would have in my group hunt so that wouldn't be an issue for us