The Hard Target Handbook

How you get picked

He decides in the time it takes to walk past

Researchers at UNC Charlotte put questions to 422 people convicted of burglary across North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio.

What put them off wasn't the brand of anybody's lock. It was other people being close by. No clean way back out. And visible signs that the place was protected.

Not one of those is something you can buy in a box. The study is here — it's the only statistic on this page, and it holds up if you go and check it.

Before you buy anything

Go and check two things

They're free. They take ninety seconds. Most people's front door has one of these two faults, neither one is visible, and a $400 camera pointed at that door doesn't know about either of them.

Check one

The jamb that already failed once

When a door is forced the lock doesn't break and the door doesn't break — the jamb splits. And a great many jambs have already split once, been filled with putty and painted over. Invisible from a foot away. Worth nothing.

Check two

The deadbolt that only looks locked

It's meant to throw a full inch. Plenty don't — because the hole behind the strike was never drilled deep enough, or the door has sagged. From the inside a half-thrown bolt feels identical to a full one.

Read both checks — free, no email

Both written out in full, with what to do if you find one.

Where the money goes

Most of it gets spent in the wrong order

Camera before the door

A camera tells you somebody's there. It does nothing to get your family out of a hallway in fifteen seconds.

Contract before the screws

A monitored plan costs more over three years than everything in these books, several times over. It may still be right for you — but not first.

Hardware before the habit

The flattened box at the curb on trash day undoes a thousand dollars of locks, and it costs nothing to fix.

Choose your level

Start with one book, or take all three

Every volume is complete on its own. Instant download, nothing that expires.

Volume I · 75 checks

The House He Skips

Everything outside your front door, and what the street can read about you.

How you get picked — the walk he takes
What the street can read about you
Ground, light and noise: the cheap layer
The five-minute hardware audit
Bins, packages, holidays, routine
Neighbors as infrastructure
Cameras and alarms — what they really do
The order I'd do it in

~~$79~~

Get Volume I

Most chosen · best value

All three volumes · 174 checks

Every check, every move, every fix — plus three printables you can't buy separately.

Volume I — The House He Skips, 75 checks
Volume II — Ninety Seconds That Matter, 58 moves
Volume III — Four Walls You Don't Own, 41 fixes Collection only
The Curb Card — 12 checks, folds to wallet size
The Duress Card — one page, filled in together
The Hardware List — dated, re-issued free

~~$158~~

Get all three books

Volume III is only in here 41 fixes for apartments and rentals — everything reversible, everything comes with you when you move. It isn't sold anywhere else.

Volume II · 58 moves

Ninety Seconds That Matter

What you do once somebody is already inside, and help is still minutes away.

The gap: minutes, not seconds
Choosing the room, and testing it at night
One strong door beats five weak ones
The word, the signal, the call
The kit that lives in the room
Drills that don't frighten anybody
After: the review that never finishes
What to say — the words, in full

~~$79~~

Get Volume II

Who wrote this

Twenty-two years of keeping people safe with whatever was on hand

"Most of what the service taught me had nothing to do with combat. It was about keeping people safe with whatever was on hand — and it bothers me watching folks pay thousands for security systems a burglar ignores while the four dollar fix that actually stops him sits unmentioned at the hardware store."

Everything in these books gets a price tag. Most of it costs less than dinner.

22Years in the Army

174Numbered checks

60Day guarantee

What's inside

Three manuals. 174 things nobody was going to write down.

Countable, numbered, and in the order I'd do them.

Volume I · 75 checks · 8 modules

The House He Skips

Everything outside your front door — starting at the curb, because that's where he starts, and working inward until it runs out of house.

What actually deterred 422 convicted burglars
The curb test — read your own house back
The blind you leave open out of habit
Gravel that turns a quiet route into a drum
Lights that startle vs lights that burn
The jamb that already failed once
The deadbolt that only looks locked
Screws that stop in trim — and the hinge side nobody replaces
Trash day discipline, and the box that advertises
How to ask one neighbor, in words that work
What a camera is genuinely for
Tonight, this week, the first Saturday, twelve weeks

Volume II · 58 moves · 8 modules

Ninety Seconds That Matter

What happens once somebody is already inside — and why a camera and an alarm do nothing about it.

The two-minute call that tells you your real response time
Central, two ways out, no street-facing window
Why the windowless bathroom is usually the answer
The light-leak check, done from the street
Solid core, long screws, hinges on the inside
A duress word that sounds like nothing
The stand-down word almost everybody skips
The panic button that costs less than dinner
The kit that lives in the room, and the battery date
Drills for children, and for older relatives
What you actually say on the call
What to say to a child afterward

Volume III · 41 fixes · 6 modules Collection only

Four Walls You Don't Own

For apartments and rentals. Everything reversible, everything leaves no marks, everything comes with you when you move. Written because renters kept saying in the comments that the channel wasn't for them.

The reversible test — sorts every idea you'll ever have
What you can do without asking anyone
The hallway version of the curb test
Hinges on the wrong side, and what to do instead
The portable brace — no screws, no holes
Why the door chain isn't a security device
Who has a key to your unit right now
When leaving beats hiding — and how to tell
Tailgating, package rooms, laundry at night
The first week, and the way out
A written request a building has to answer
Who can answer the legal questions — and why I don't

Nothing in here expires

The one page with prices on it

There are no prices inside the books. A price printed in a book is wrong within two years, and I'm not selling you something that expires — so everything in all three volumes is costed in bands.

The actual numbers live on the Hardware List, dated on its face. When they drift enough to matter you get a new copy, free. That's what the mailing list is for, and it's the only thing I'll ever email you.

Sixty days. Zero risk.

Read all three. Run the two checks. If it hasn't paid for itself, write to me and I'll refund it.

No questions. No hoops. And you keep the printables.

Last call

It all sits on top of a door

Without them: you buy the camera, then the doorbell, then the sign for the yard — and the door all of it is pointing at has a fault nobody ever looked for.

With them: ninety seconds tonight tells you whether you need a screwdriver or a phone call. Then a Saturday. Then one thing a week, for as long as it takes to feel automatic instead of forced.

~~$158~~

Yes — give me all three books

Instant download · 60-day guarantee · three volumes and three printables

Questions from the porch

Honest answers

Is this about guns?

No. There isn't a firearm anywhere in these three books.

Does it tell me what I'm allowed to do to an intruder?

No, and it never will. What the law permits inside your own home varies by state, by city, and sometimes by the circumstances of a single night — me guessing at it in print would be worse than useless to you. Every plan in these books ends the same way: get to the room, call for help, in that order. The books name who to ask instead: a local attorney and your county sheriff's office, both free or close to it.

I rent. Is any of this for me?

Volume III is the reason the collection exists. Everything in it is reversible, leaves no marks, needs nobody's permission, and comes with you when you move. It was written because renters kept saying in the comments that the channel wasn't for them.

Can I buy Volume III on its own?

No. It's in the collection only. That's what makes the collection a different product rather than a discount.

What if I've already done most of this?

Run the two checks first — they're free and they're on this page. If both pass on every exterior door you're further along than most people, and the refund window is sixty days either way.

Digital or physical?

Digital. PDF, instant download — read it on anything, print what you want. No app, no login, no subscription.

Will it go out of date?

The books, no — everything in them is costed in bands rather than dollar figures, for exactly that reason. The Hardware List is dated on its face and you get re-issues free.