I'm working on a page on my website (www.y2ksurvive.com) that will offer suggestions on how to store one's cash or gold safely at home. I have some good ideas on this subject but I'd like very much to have more. Your input and suggestions would be most welcome, either here or in a private e-mail to me at cody@y2ksurvive.com.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), September 26, 1999

Answers

just make certain the cash is in something fireproof and both items would take an incredibly intelligent thief about two days to find.

a secret stash smooch to ya'.

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), September 26, 1999.

I would tell ya Cody but then I'd have ta kill ya!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), September 26, 1999.

LOL,Andy - I was thinking the same thing!

-- April (Alwzapril@home.com), September 26, 1999.

My grandmother was alway hiding money in her house. One time, my daugher wanted a snack while we were visiting grann's house so she told my daugher there was some girl scout cookies in the freezer. My daughter got the box out of the freezer and found wads of cash in the box. My grandmother had forgotten she put the money in the box so noone would find it. She kept her purse in the clothes dryer, which I though was very original.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), September 26, 1999.

Carol - the freezer idea is fairly well known to criminal types (and those who write about them, which is were I learned this trick several years ago).

There are many good books on the concept of how to hide physical assets, not just cash. Darned if I can think of the titles, but trust me, I've read several.

Cody - you've got a problem man. Everybody that's figured out what to do in their situation is afraid to tell you what they've done! We all know our posts are being read by everyone from the abc soup guys to the not-so-desirable among us. And I just got done telling everyone not be afraid... Hypocrite that I am...

-- Ray (shusters@montanasky.net), September 26, 1999.

Hide it in plain sight. That's the way I do it. People are NOT out to rob you, believe me, and if it comes to a situation in which everyone is robbing everyone else, forget about it--we're done. Put it away and don't even think of it.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), September 26, 1999.

Have a basement or crawl space? PVC pipe sealed, buried.

-- Goldbug (Goldbug@mint.com), September 26, 1999.

My Great, great......grandfather during the Revolutionary war took one of the studs in the wall of his home, bored a hole in it and put his gold coins there and then replaced it. The story goes that the only other person he told was his oldest son. He was afraid his wife would spill the beans if caught and "questioned".

True story.

-- John Beck (eurisko111@aol.com), September 26, 1999.

I used my foodsaver (home vacuum sealer) to seal (twice) up currency in lots of $500 and $1000. I then proceeded to hide them throughout the yard. The vacuum action reduces the volume of those small bills a lot. Once you see this, I'm sure your mind will open up to even more creative places to put your sealed goodies. Incidentally, the foodsaver is on sale at Costco for a $180, a good price. Hope this helps.

-- ratt (round@nd.round), September 26, 1999.

My great grandfather hid a sack of silver coins in one of the walls of his house. He died rather suddenly, telling nobody about it. The sack of coins was found melted together in a big lump when the house burned down 50 years or so after his death. Nothing was left of the sack, of course, and the coins were melted just enough to have stuck together in a big lump weighing about 35 lbs. It's now mounted on a board and makes a great conversation piece.

Ol' Sweetie

-- Ol' Sweetie (sugar@sugarshack.not), September 26, 1999.

Hide your stash in the heating duct. No one would ever look there.

-- John Ainsworth (ainsje@cstone.net), September 26, 1999.

Buy a 200 dollar safe. Place it in the open. Put something of mild value in it. Then practive crying. Now place things of value in secret places. Be prepared to have the safe stolen. You keep 95% and they get 5%.

-- enough is (enough@enough.com), September 26, 1999.

None of my valuables are located or buried here, but here's a few suggestions:

Bird houses (plug hole with a piece from the inside with wood, but paint the wood black to give an illusion of a hole being there).

Connect a fake cleanout on your sewer pipe under your house with a screw-on cap.

Inside heating/air conditioning ducts.

Inside Tampax, Tampax, Diaper Boxes.

-- sock it away (sockitaway@sockitawayyy.xcom), September 26, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

But, tampons may fetch a high price, and be stolen for their tampon value.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), September 26, 1999.

In tampons gives a new meaning to "the old money maker" or "booty call."

-- A (A@AisA.com), September 26, 1999.

Yep- a neighbor of mine, in an apt. building i once lived in was robbed, and among the items stolen were her makeup and tampax! (so forget hiding the loot in the tampax box)......

anyway- other suggestions I have heard of - put a fake electric outlet receptacle box in your wall- hide the loot in it. Put bills inside of books. Put money, etc in cans that look like the rest of the Pork and Beans, put the money in a pouch on a dog harness that your rotweiller wears......

I think however, that hiding the loot in a kitty litter box would be perfect.....:) I think a perfect

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.net), September 26, 1999.

Inside an old computer's cpu - like the kind that had the big floppy drives - under the desk you have your nice computer on now. Make sure it looks like a rat-trap, with wires hanging out and a couple good sized dents. Or have your kid make an art project out of the front of it, complete with drawn on beard and a placard reading Ol' Grampa PerCy.

Inside a table or chair leg - easy to do.

Inside the ball-float in the back of your toilet.

Inside a rotary dial telephone on a shelf in your basement.

Inside photo frames, just one bill thick.

Bottom of your dirty laundry hamper, inside balled up and obviously soiled sweat socks.

Inside old stuffed toys.

Underneath your washing machine.

Buried in the ground under your compost pile.

Long-term insurance hiding: Actually inside your septic tank, w/o attached cord or anything. It IS possible to get it out.

Inside junior golf tournament trophy in your kid's closet.

Inside old 8-track tapes.

No end of ways, and none of them completely safe. I'm "hiding" mine in a safety deposit box despite all the advise here to the contrary, but it's fun to imagine places.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), September 26, 1999.

Safety deposit boxes emptied without notice to customers:

http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/business/getahead/docs/kristof14. htm

-- (NoSafetyDeposit@bank4Me.com), September 26, 1999.

Thanks to all who contributed to this. I have had a number of people e-mail me for cash stash suggestions and I realized that the information would be a helpful addition to the other info on my website.

The two most important things to consider about hiding paper money is (1) the risk of fire and (2) the risk of theft. WalMart sells fireproof boxes in several sizes. The smallest one would be the easiest to hide; several small ones in different spots around the house would be the best bet.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), September 27, 1999.

www.paladin-press.com

"How to hide anything" by Michael Connor.

Paladin Press is a great source for survivalist books.

-- Mr. T (treader@dawn.net), September 27, 1999.

We have a pile of empty cardboard boxes in the basement. It has occurred to me that if we put valuables in another box and hid it under the pile, probably no one would think to look there.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), September 27, 1999.

Why not take advantage of the fact that most interior doors are hollow? Make a fake bottom to the door or route out part of it and fabricate a plug that blends in well and slip items within (paper certificates sealed in baggies (see the above mention of a vacuum sealer), etc. can be hidden here, but use no metallic objects as a metal-detector sweep would find a suspicious blip coming from the bottom of the door.)

Another door idea, but for coins: Remove a hinge and use a Dremel with a router bit to carve a channel into the wood that's just deep enough to slip coinage into, but not so deep that it cuts entirely through the wood. Make sure your channel doesn't interfere with any screw holes and is deep enough that the hinge sets back into place without crusing the coinage. Slip in coins and reattach hinge. A door has what, two or three hinges? You could probably hide several ounces per hinge if you do it right. And a metal-detector sweep would not spot it since there's that huge false echo RIGHT there...

Fake outlets are good too, but make sure the fake outlet is in an out- of-the-way location that's extremely unlikely to be inviting enough that a visitor (welcome or otherwise) would plug anything into the outlet. Behind headboards in a bedroom is good. Also, behind a huge sofa in a living room or den. Just get a retrofit-style single or double-gang deep box, cut the drywall, install the box, and put outlets into it as per the normal way but without being wired into anything. Add the cover plate and poof, a dozen or more square inches of space to hide whatever in.

The idea is to capitalize on the fact that people don't tend to think outside the box enough to use really unorthodox methods of concealment. But, since some methods (freezer, toilet tank, etc.) are well known, avoid those.

The crafty and createively psychotic...

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), September 27, 1999.