We’ve all watched it on TV. A natural disaster strikes a region, or a protest turns into a riot, and seemingly normal people start looting with reckless abandon. It’s an all too familiar scene these days, and it’s left a lot of people wondering just how to identify potential looters in hopes of keeping them away from your property.
While there’s no foolproof way to spot a potential looter, modern psychology and sociology do provide some clues to help improve your odds. Understanding these personality types, their triggers, and internal modus might help you decrease your chances of becoming a potential target.
The Unprepared
For blatantly obvious reasons unprepared or under-prepared people are the most likely types of people who will turn to looting. A crisis strikes, and they suddenly realize they don’t have what they need to keep their belly full, and their bottom wiped.
From that point, it’s all too easy for a small moment of desperation to transform into an opportunity to do some serious looting. Especially, if they’re part of a mob of similarly desperate, unprepared people, or the local businesses and homeowners aren’t putting up any serious resistance.
Grocery stores, bulk stores, and big box retailers are usually the first targets for these types of looters. Yet once they feel like they have what they need to keep their family fed they’ll likely turn to sporting goods stores and hardware stores to get the other things they’ll need to sustain themselves if the crisis goes on for more than a few days.
If these unprepared looters know about your prep supplies, they might be bold enough to try to take them from you. Especially if they’re an acquaintance, who feels like they aren’t close enough to be considered a friend.
If you haven’t done so already, you need to looter-proof your property. I personally learned a lot about how to do this from the Bug In Guide by Navy SEAL Joel Lambert. I fully recommend it since it has a dedicated chapter on exactly this topic. It will teach you things like:
- Signs to avoid on your property
- What hiding places looters never check
- How to make your hose invisible after SHTF
- SEAL home survival tactics
- Common security mistakes you’re probably guilty of
Learn more about the book and get your copy here. It will even teach you how to outlive an EMP and has lessons on topics like self-sufficiency. You will not regret it!
People with Addiction Issues
Alcoholics and drug addicts live most of their lives in a state of desperation, that makes them prone to looting when SHTF. These are people who deep down feel or actually need their fix to live. Their brain chemistry is also prone to making choices with lowered inhibitions.
Depending on what they’re addicted to addicts and alcoholics will usually try to loot the liquor store and/or the pharmacy. If they can’t get what they need, or they feel like there isn’t enough to keep them from going into withdrawal, they’ll start looting for other things of value. The hope here is that they can get their hands on something that someone with alcohol or their drug of choice will trade for.
Related: These Common Items Will Become A Luxury When SHTF
Sometimes people with addiction issues will surprise you, and sometimes a SHTF situation will force you out of the blinders you’ve been wearing about a loved one’s looting problems. If there is someone close to you with drug or alcohol problems, and you’ve been looking the other way, your valuables and prep items might be the first thing they loot to afford their fix!
Homeless & Displaced People
People who have lost their homes to natural disasters or individuals who are already homeless are also looting high-risk types to watch out for when SHTF. We need only look at hurricanes and earthquakes in recent history like Katrina and the devastation in Haiti to see how ugly ordinary people can get when displaced from their homes.
The local homeless compound the threat of looting in your area. Many have addiction issues and already live in a state of desperation. They’ve probably spent weeks, months, or even years vagrantly living in your area.
Chances are the local homeless population has window-shopped all the homes and businesses in your area but didn’t dare act on it in normal times. When a SHTF situation descends the area into lawlessness, they’ve already got their looter’s shopping list in their heads.
The Working Poor
People who work hard, yet still struggle financially for other reasons are another type of seemingly normal people who will quickly turn to looting when SHTF. Psychologically, they often have a sense of feeling like they deserve a better standard of life, and act on it when the opportunity presents itself.
Looting like this is often concentrated in low-income housing areas, and businesses near multi-family housing developments. Many times, people are swept up into a form of mob mentality when they see the rest of the neighborhood moving together to loot local businesses.
This was on full display during the LA Riots in 1992 and Minneapolis in 2020. They started out as being racially charged. Yet it didn’t take long for economically disadvantaged people to steal and start burning buildings. In some cases, looters came from other states to exploit the opportunity created by the ongoing civil unrest.
Individuals Who Consume a Lot of Political Social Media
People who are emotionally triggered by social media and political outcry can also become prone to looting. Often social media amplification of messages can drive seemingly normal people to take things into their own hands when SHTF.
Many browsers, phones, and apps that we use every day have algorithms paying attention to the content we consume. These algorithms tend to present us with similar messages that can make certain political events seem larger and more critically threatening than they might be in actuality.
Marketing agencies and social media managers are well aware of the power of this message amplification and often feed the flames. This can push things to the tipping point of civil unrest, triggering seemingly ordinary people to turn to looting when the opportunity arises.
The Negative Person Who Wants It to Happen
People who are going through stressful times, or struggle to feel like they’ve found their place in the world often fantasize about the world hitting a reset button. They might feel that a sprinkle of SHTF here or a major crisis there might be what they need to get back to level ground. They do not want to stay safe.
Unfortunately, the brain reinforces what you tell it. For many of these people, the displeasure they feel in their lives simply carries over to more dangerous degrees when a crisis breaks out in the streets. They become more prone to act on it to feel like this is their chance to get back to good.
Such people are particularly dangerous. Many of them do not have power in their daily lives so they want to hurt others. They might want to loot you even if they do not need nothing from you, secretly hoping for an “exciting” confrontation.
Against such people, being prepared is vital for survival. And everything starts with your property line!
Set up traps like camouflaged spike raps, tripwire alarms, and even hidden razor-blade wire. You can learn how to here. At the very least, you should set up an alarm system to wake you up if someone is sneaking on your property.
The Mentally Ill
Mentally ill individuals and those with developmental disorders are more prone to being swept up in a SHTF crisis. If they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, they can struggle to resist the mob mentality that quickly leads to looting behavior.
This is even more likely to be an issue in a prolonged crisis where mental health medications are in increasingly short supply. If you have a friend or family member with mental health issues, it might be in their best interest to stay at home and out of the fray on the streets. Especially if there is some concern about the lack of medication or therapeutic services.
Video Gamers
There is an addictive quality to modern-day video games that can distort reality for gamers. Many games make it seem way too easy to do heroic things with minimal negative consequences. Their “Guy” dies on the screen and they have to go back to their last save point. There’s no real pain, struggle or hard work to it. The game creates an illusion of a comfort zone. At the same time, the reward centers of the brain are stimulated when a gamer defeats the big boss or wins the championship match.
Someone who spends too much time in this sort of diluted gamer reality can become prone to making bad choices in the real world. On your average Tuesday, this shows up as speeding tickets and maybe even a drunk driving arrest. They might even get caught shoplifting. However, these are just psychological escalation behaviors.
Left unchecked, these gamer-ingrained behavior patterns can make these individuals prone to getting wrapped up in activities that they don’t immediately see as dangerous—especially looting, which is often a common element in many popular video games.
Summing-Up
It can be hard to look at someone and know with complete certainty that they’ll turn to looting when SHTF. However, the chances of someone becoming a potential looter do go up if they have other factors that might reduce their mental resilience or real-world ability to care for themselves.
Under-prepared individuals and people displaced by disasters will be prone to looting when SHTF simply to keep their family fed. They didn’t have any proper food stocks prepared, they know it, and they’ll do just about anything to get it.
People with substance abuse issues are also highly prone to looting when a disaster strikes. Liquor stores and pharmacies are top targets, but they might loot other high-value things like electronics or jewelry in hopes of having something to trade for their drug of choice.
You also have to keep an eye out for the mentally ill and local homeless population. Especially those who have lived in the area and might have spent months window-shopping local homes and businesses. When SHTF, they embrace the lawless time as a way to get their hands on the things their eyes have coveted.
What do you think about all this? Did we miss a group of people? Maybe you have first-hand experience with some looters you never saw coming.
We can all learn from you so please share your stories in the comments.
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Men with guns who can hardly wait to use them to “protect” their familys?
You can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the
consequences of ignoring reality.
Looters will be people without high ethics. Freeloaders instead of producers, and predators instead of respecters and defenders. The very rich are less likely to bother, but anyone with low ethics who sees opportunity is likely to loot, just because they might get something for nothing. A poor and hungry person with ethics will not loot, and he will despise those who do.
Yes Bill, freeloaders, as in ones that have been on gov handouts for two to three generation and taken the attitude that the whole world owes them something. I would trust the neighborhood guy that sorts thru trash cans for a few beer cans over a relative that is on welfare like her mom and her grandmother was. The guy that has learned to get buy with the hand he has been dealt in life is a better bet than the freeloader.
Looters will be anyone under painful circumstances. This country hasn’t had truly bad times in almost 100 years. Some groups have had a rough time but no power, no gas, people around you starving, no clean water. What would you do? Unpleasant question but it is still THE question. What would you do? Blame it on the gun? The neighbors? The non existent governments? Your house or wherever you are has rats. Sickness. There goes a stranger. Are you going to follow and scavenge? What are going to do? If you cannot be honest with yourself now, now is the time.
So… Democrats like Lisa!
The most likely looter in a crisis are those who loot as a way of life! Any excuse to break-in, vandalize and loot, from a political protest, to a sports team winning or losing! We are into a third generation of “professional looters”!
When SHTF for the people of Earth , we all will be tested at the level of our understanding . What that is going to look like is beyond my comprehension .I know I’ve thought about myself as a nice person. Yet thoughts of breaking the law when time’s get tuff for me has crossed my mind more than once. I’m grateful now i did not go through with most of those thoughts. Lots of people wil say we are all sinners which now i tend to agree .Not having a reason to loot would be nice.
Don’t forget to add the christian right to this list. They are the ones who feel people owe them something, so they’ll just take it. Or if they came to my house, they would go see their god delusion real quick.
what a load of bull S%$#%^*t if they are real Christians they would die of starvation before sin. You better get some Jesus before you pass.
ridge runner loves Blake !! 💜🌎💪🏾💪🏾 ☆ RESIST !!☆
Lisa; Your extreme prejudice is showing. I doubt you even know anyone who qualifies as your description of “Christian Right”. Well, I can tell you FOR CERTAIN THAT one lady I know just handed out completely freely $5,500 as a gift to a small school in Uganda, so they could afford to drill a water well. She never looked back as she handed me the money, nor did she ask or demand ANYTHING! You really need to stop criticizing those you’ve never even met nor heard about!! What a CROCK!!
Go give Lisa any reply.
It’s the besting the fool thing.
Poor Lisa.She doesn’t understand anything.
Save your life by finding a place to live that operates
under the rule of law and where people don’t know
how truly weak and useless you are.
Lisa you are living in a world of wolves and you are
clearly not a wolf.
S – S and S
Nobody has mentioned the heirarchy of looting. I would like to think I’d never loot from a family home and that I’m prepared enough to help out with others children’s basic needs but a big warehouse full of extra prepping stocks …..yep I’d help myself even if it was to give away and help someone else. I suppose I’m making a distinction ..one is urban foraging and the other is stealing. And no I’m not a young buck with a gun.im a 68 year old geandmother &homesteader
That’s an incredibly honest and thoughtful reflection, and it highlights something many people don’t talk about: the moral gray areas that emerge in true crisis situations. It’s easy to say “I’d never do this” or “I’d always do that” when times are stable, but survival can challenge even the best of intentions. Your distinction between looting a family’s home versus taking from a large, impersonal stockpile speaks to a deep sense of ethics and community-mindedness, even in desperate times.
And the fact that you’re thinking about helping others, especially children, shows the heart behind your choices. Many people may find themselves in similar moral dilemmas if things ever really fall apart. The truth is, survival and compassion don’t have to be at odds, and your words show that it’s possible to prepare with both in mind. As a 68-year-old grandmother and homesteader, your perspective brings a lot of wisdom to the conversation, and it’s a reminder that sometimes the best preppers are the ones who think beyond just themselves.
Short comment. I live in a very rural area. If the SHTF i don’t see people being able to travel far. These looters will be mostly from population centers. I have the ability to eliminate any local threat. I don’t think i am being nieve.
Marg peetom – yes, because thats why they own a weapon, now dont you wish you had one to protect your self from them ? ? ? thank god you know MEN are the entire problem, thats supposed to be a secret you know.
Doc H. you better listen to him ! I am not saying become a looter, I am saying 6 days with no food for your 4 kids, you will loot or you are lower than DIRT !
AFTER real SHTF, w mart corp, just doesnt count anymore, they already ended ! but dont go loot if you can avoid it. The TV set, worthless anyway. Am radio, probably dont sell them anymore – getting scarce NOW without a car attached ( that will be a source). After the fools go thru, hardware will be left. the FIRST to loot dont know what or how to use hardware, and they will take every bit of food and they WILL KILL YOU, to get the last can of corn.
SCAVENGING, will be life. Dysentery etc will end life for millions, what they leave behind, you WILL scavenge- necessity.
the message, be prepared to stay fed while total chaos erupts. To hunker down while disease runs rampant. And to start again after all that, which means you better stay fed from fall to next harvest time, otherwise your only prepped for an ice storm.
Maggie – love you dear ! your wisdom is showing.
Tom – good man. the first farm houses the city rats come too, will run out of ammo.
Lisa, tomorrow, learn what a hole in the ground looks like, you dont know !
Doc – thumbs up ! But honestly, my fork made me fat.
Chuck, Bill, Dome liv. ALL thumbs UP !
as for the guy not on welfare, picks deposit cans from trash, thats they guy to help out, less likely to END you to see what else you might have. MY team won or lost, lets destroy a city block, thats the one you WARN once, go away NOW or you wont ever go away again.
Remain CALM, thats survival. The human RATS, wont. They will see opportunity and its YOU. SHTF, time to stand your ground, next month, those that still stand, can start to be friends. Stand YOUR ground, you wont hurt others standing their ground, later you can barter and later yet be friends and helpful Neighbours !
I look forward to meeting you all, 6 months . . . After