THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB IS… YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.
-Fight Club Movie 1999 (link
OpSec, or Operational Security, is an important rule to follow for those who have chosen to prepare for emergencies by stockpiling food, self defense armaments and disaster supplies.
It’s simple, really. Don’t talk about your preparedness supplies unless it is with trusted people with whom you will be working if a worst case scenario comes to pass. Otherwise, if the world around you collapses and your neighbors and acquintances known you have supplies, guess who they will turn to for help. If you deny them help when they come asking, and they have no place else to turn, you can be relatively certain they will do everything in their power to get at your larder – and that means collaborating with those who would do you harm.
The other key reason we don’t talk about our preps, especially the sharing of critical details like what we store and where we store it, is that you are a potential domestic terror suspect with respect to newly disseminated bulletins from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
Case in point: Alfred C. Dutton, known for his appearance on the National Geographic reality show Doomsday Preppers, was recently convicted of possession of unregistered destructive devices.
Off Grid Survival Reports:
A number of times in the past, I have warned about how dangerous I think T.V. shows like Doomsday Preppers are to the prepping community. In my opinion, these prepping shows do nothing to help people prepare and are designed to do only one thing – To make Preppers look like complete Wackjobs!
I hate to say I was right, but it seems the popular reality T.V. show about prepping is now being used to help obtain search warrants and convict preppers of crimes.
The case in question, involves a man from Kansas who was prepping for an economic collapse scenario. It seems law enforcement officials in Kansas used the T.V. show and images of preppers to not only obtain a warrant for a residents arrest, but also to convict the man of crimes in court.
Aflred Dutton, a military veteran and self described prepper from Kansas, was convicted last month of making and storing explosive devices. While what he did may have been a crime, this story should serve as a warning to other preppers. USE YOUR RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT WHEN IT COMES TO PREPPING……The fact that you prep can and will be used against you in the court of law.
The Basis for the Search Warrants states:
Mr. Dutton, a military veteran, has been preparing for the economic collapse of the world. In addition to gathering a large supply of non-perishable items, he also has a modest collection of firearms and ammunition. And he makes fireworks.
During the trial, the prosecution played clips from the popular National Geographic Channel show, “Doomsday Preppers”. The prosecution used images of various “crazy ass preppers” from the T.V. show to successfully paint a picture of Mr. Dutton, as someone on the fringe of society that posed an extreme danger to his community.
Doomsday Preppers most certainly put Mr. Dutton on the radar, but his undoing came at the hands of someone he trusted but shouldn’t have:
The only source of information for the storage unit search warrant came from Joe Scott, Mr. Dutton’s ex-wife’s boyfriend. Mr. Scott often came to Mr. Dutton’s apartment to pick up Mr. Dutton’s daughter for her visitation. During these visits, Mr. Dutton and Mr. Scott discussed firearms, fireworks, and other explosives.
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On August 23, 2011, Mr. Scott went to the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office to tell them about the conversations he had had with Mr. Dutton. Based on Mr. Scott’s information, local law enforcement officer, Captain Lumley, prepared an affidavit supporting the search warrant.
Joe Scott came to the Greenwood county Sheriff’s Office to report that Alfred Dutton Jr. possibly had explosives. Scott said that on or about August 9th of 2011 he had gone to Dutton’s apartment to pick up a minor child per court visitation. While standing and talking with Dutton he produced a small cylindrical device about the size, Scott thought, of a triple A battery. Dutton asked if he knew what it was and when Joe said he didn’t Dutton told him it was a fuse for a hand grenade.
During their talk Dutton had said he ordered fuses from the internet and when they arrived and found they were what he wanted he was then going to order Grenade hulls and claymore mine hulls because the fuse worked in either one. When Scott went to pick up the child on August 16th Dutton told him that he could not find the black powder he needed that [sic] to complete the devices and had to order it from Cabela’s website on the internet.
Scott said when Dutton told him that he ordered the black powder he became concerned for safety reasons of the minor child and public safety of the residents around him in the apartment complex. Scott gave me a package of 20foot safety fuse and told me that Dutton had given it to him just after July 4th of 2010 to “blow stuff up” if he ever needed to, Scott has become concerned because Dutton told him when the government starts to round up citizens he will be one of the first because of his military background.
Source: Dept. of Justice
Mr. Dutton was subsequently charged with with knowingly possessing destructive devices, more fully described as five incendiary bombs (Count I) and nine grenades (Count II). He was convicted under Federal Law and sentenced to serve 21 months in prison.
As Off Grid Survival points out in their report, Mr. Dutton was breaking the law and there is a likelihood that he was endangering those living in his direct vicinity.
We’re not defending Mr. Dutton’s actions, though we suspect there is many a prepper out there that possess similar incendiary devices (or parts) intended for use to protect one’s property from looters and roaming gangs in the aftermath of a collapse. Likewise, there are preppers out there stockpiling other supplies that may not be fully compliant with the law or have been obtained by circumventing existing state and federal statutes.
As such, what this report highlights is that if you talk about your preps with anyone but those who will join you at your survival retreat, you are asking for trouble.
Let’s say it together…. The first rule of Prep Club is…
