The Blade Runners also used spray foam. Very effective and cheap. Absolutely can destroy a surveillance camera. Spray it in a key hole to jam a lock. Fill an exhaust pipe. Use your imagination.
I've seen videos of vandals that got caught because the black spray paint dripped off the hydrophobic coating on the camera that they assumed they had neutralised.
If spray foam is too messy and obvious I'd be inclined to go for blu-tac or greenstuff depending on how annoying you want to be. Either way use gloves. Both preserve fingerprints.
I'd suggest chewing gum but I assume that preserves DNA.
One thing I noticed that was left out, unless I missed it in the food and snacks section was water. I might have just missed it in the 116 pages but a 3 liter hydration bladder will be absolutely necessary and also a list of places in one's maps to obtain fresh and clean drinking water.
Just one thing that came to mind after thinking on this a bit.
Very true (Pinned)... It was the "Snacks and drinks" section, but I editted in some key advice on water specifically and how to safely source it.
Mind you this one is actually less urgent than you might think, given almost all Urban areas have water fountains scattered fairly generously around parks, paths and bike routes. (This should be mapped out or written down in your notebook) And Hose accesses in almost all parks (though this you'd probably want to boil, hoses are sometimes just from wells and not tested)
Whereas edible snacks or flavored stuff (sugar, caffine etc.) are not given out for free at 2am outside camera view.
But yes especially for a longer insert/exfiltration bringing your own water is essential. And I should have been explicit about that.
Yep. A few others here in the states have used this in the past as well. One comes to mind where in some big city some years ago and anon out an ad on Craigslist for day labor and told all who were "set to work at the job site" to wear orange hardhats and vests and show up at a certain location at a certain day and time. Possibly a hundred people (can't remember the exact number) showed up to the "work site" and the anon actually used them as cover to hiest a bank or jewelry store or something like that while dressed in hardhat and safety vest etc and so the police were looking for someone dressed in this manner and found a shitload of them all hanging around the AO and as far as I remember they never caught the guy or guys who pulled the heist.
Digital security is another shelf of books, but be aware that any digital camera has a unique fingerprint of pixel noise for that particular copy of sensor chip. Do not post pictures on a traceable account taken with the same camera used for secret stuff. This can be defeated by pretty basic image editing such as downsizing to 50%, but you still have EXIF data and other camera identifiers, best to just keep separate tools.
There’s a navigation/sighting trick that might be useful. Every human’s fist, held at arms length, takes up the same angle of vision as seen from the owner’s eye. If I recall correctly, each knuckle was ~5 mills, with the entire fist being about 20 mills.
What that means is that you can use an easily identifiable landmark and take accurate measurements that can then be given to someone else, without any tools whatsoever.
“The stash is under the bush 3 knuckles to the left of the flagpole, as seen from the fire exit”
“From x, take a bearing 3 fists right of the park bench and walk 600 paces “
For example, if you are Travelling at 60 MPH, your finger taps at 15 iterations will give you a quarter mile lead time on the next critical move.
There are perhaps infinite ways to conduct this behavior, and once you train yourself in a particular way (tactile, visual, auditory (auditory is tactically subpar), you’ll never forget it like riding a bike or how to sanitize water.
So learn this or buy an analog stopwatch that doesn’t make noise.
The ability to dead reckon, or merely have a general understanding of where you are 60-360-720-1440-2880-etc seconds in the future depends on your ability to do this.
Haven’t finished yet but I gotta throw some more shit on the hobo list. First makeup, you can completely fuck a surveillance net with makeup. Now you do need to be phillipina with body issues good to fool real people but caking yourself in bad eye shadow and shit contour with still wreck a camera and people will just think you’re a queer. A full kit can be purchased for $5 at every store in the world.
Pace or ranger beads my apologies for missing the spelling error. It’s essentially a string of beads on a string by counting up the beads an every time you take set number of steps a damn accurate dead reckoning of distance traveled can be kept. I know that rosaries and prayer ropes have been used for the same purpose as well.
Very 40k unfortunately a rosary isn’t as good as a full set of rangers which really are a land nav abacus in the right hands. I know guys that can nail themselves to within a 100 yard box with them and a good compass.
What's a full set of rangers? I tried looking it up and I got power rangers stuff.
Dead reckoning is an amazing skill. I've done it at sea and it's hard as hell, but the people who're good at it are godly. My grandfather once navigated through a storm using only dead reckoning. When they were clear my uncle took a sun sight and they were only a few hundred yards apart.
Great work on putting this together. The cheap and cheerful option has so many advantages in many areas of life.
I would add the shepherd sling. Made easily from two pieces of paracord and a hunk of denim. With a little practice you can throw an egg-sized rock well over 150 yards and remarkably accurately too. So small it tucks into any pocket, and you can take one anywhere without anyone knowing what it is. (I'm pretty sure that's what the ancient peltists were using on the battlefield with their lack of elastic bands.)
Great write up, although I did miss the most basic and cheap weapon, the walking stick. A loaded shilleleagh is a 3 foot mace and will break arms and legs, and while the nice blackthorn ones take 3 years to make, you can make a nice oak one from a sapling with a hatchet.
Very inconspicuous when hiking, also very useful for hike and trail and the number of secondary uses of a lever are practically infinite.
Somewhat more limited use for tactical urban hobo hijinks.
Inconspicuous on walking trails, but very conspicuous in any urban setting. Almost no one affects a cane. Perhaps with a suit and opera cape?
Can't fit it in e.g. a backpack unless it's collapsible, which makes it much more work to make (or more expensive and suspicious to buy), lighter, and less reliable.
So you're leaving it in a place to do the dirty, and picking it up later, or abandoning it.
Unless you fake a limp. Though that makes you easier to pick out in a crowd.
The ski poles some people use for walking might be a little less conspicuous, but they're less useful for hitting things, and you have to be dressed to match.
The old style "curve head" canes are something you can take anywhere, no opera cape required. It does help if you are further along the age curve (vs a 20-something).
A note about bicycles-Never rely on inner tube patches. I've been cycling for years and have only had one patch actually last. Always carry spare inner tubes and ALWAYS get the heavy duty variety. If you have to change a tube you want it to last and you cannot, CANNOT, rely on a cheap, lightweight tube.
Another advantage to bikes is that you will have mirrors on both handle bars which will improve your surveiling activities.
Something that's been bugging me recently is how sports have diverged from military training. In the classical world almost all sports were practicing some military skill or other, should we be forming urban orienteering teams and trying to stalk celebrities like papparazi?
Edit: Also, I was thinking, would there be any value in a homemade device that combined the digital needs of this list?
It wouldn't be at all hard to make an arduino project that combines an MP3 player, GPS reader, clock, stopwatch and red/white torch.
All of the components are generic and hard to trace, especially if you order them from aliexpress. All that'd be required to assemble it would be basic soldering skills and a 3D printer for the case. It wouldn't be hard to make it look like something else either, like a phone or a beeper.
It's main advantage is you could be doubleplusgood sure that it doesn't have any weird backdoors since you can audit the software yourself, and all the chips involved are too simple and well documented to snitch on you.
I think sports that train military skills would be harder to monetize.
Special clothing and gear, arenas set up for TV cameras, etc. vs. drone cameras (driving one of those is a new skill compared to studio/stadium cameras), and likely worse lighting.
Camo clothing looks generic unless you're really into it, vs. readily visible team clothing that can be sold and identifies you as a follower.
Yes, there are the people who buy this stuff. But they're buying it already, and it's possible that orienteering sports leagues might actually depress sales from them.
This has most definitely been a good return on my patience and as you stated a good jumping off point.
It's amazing how alike we think. I especially liked the section on knives/machete/ blades, as a blades combat expert myself I really appreciate your takes on that end.
Also the garbage bags are something I've used extensively for many years. Those and various sizes freezer bags/Ziploc bags for waterproof storage.
I will contribute some more of my own tips and tricks for operating on a budget but you've covered most of it already.
Seriously, this is a really great piece of work here and I actually think I'm in love.
Again thank you for all of your work. It is invaluable and will be worth it weight in gold in the struggles to come.
Because they are coming. The shit is definitely about to hit the fan in the next few years.
Warning with Ziplocs: think of them as water resistant not water proof. Even name brand freezer bags "leak" if *holding* liquid or wet food. Back in the day there were hyper-expensive ones marketed for phones, etc. that were great and actually waterproof but they were still a plastic bag that wore out making the initial high cost prohibitive.
The trouble with the gas kit bike is unless you're in da hood it's a rare loud cop magnet of a vehicle. You have a strong chance of being pulled over, having your ID checked, and being the most unusual thing the cop saw that week. If your charisma score is low enough, your unlicensed motorcycle is getting impounded and you have a court date.
Ebike (meaning ~15mph electric bicycle, not a surron) batteries can be swappable if you know how to solder. It's just voltage in and out. With extra packs you can get enough range to go from one end of a city to the other and back, then you can still pedal depending on weight, or recharge if you find a power outlet. It's perfectly legal if you're within the power limits for your jurisdiction, and trendy among city commuters.
You may also want to add a Katadyn UV light steriliser. Good for thousands of litres of water, runs of AA batteries, no fire required, can be paired with a cheap prefilter as well for physical contaminants. Or an eye dropper with bleach will purify a lot of water.
A speedy stitch and spare thread will give you the capability to mod or repair textiles anywhere.
A foam climbing helmet is going to be lighter than a skateboard and all typically feature a head lamp mount (you don’t want to wear a headlamp directly on your head for hours at a time)
Collapsible water bottles (hydropak) can be had in large sizes (8L down to .5L)
Lighter and less volume. But originally developed for MACVSOG who was being exposed by water sloshing in canteens.
If you want to rappel you would be well advised to learn how to fashion a harness from webbing (YouTube) and to pick up 5 mil rap line and some locking carabiners (HMS style)
A portable LIPO battery pack or a stock of AA or AAA batteries (ideally your gear runs off the same size battery)
Potentially trekking poles if covering lots of ground. (Carbide tipped ones may double as anti material or a stabbing implement)
NOLS literature would serve any hobo well.
Learn how to tape sprains and strains.
A second hand (Facebook marketplace / CG) Garmin watch (set up without the app) may be a suitable replacement for the handheld GPS in addition to timers, sunrise sunset etc
also Saran wrap. Frequently used on ambulances to make an occlusive dressing.
Marlin spike will be useful for knots (and the same things an ice pick is good at)
Old Eink tablets are dumb, and have an insane battery life, near limitless PDF capacity and can be found second hand for cheap.
open source USB password managers can provide security for accounts and passwords you can’t afford to lose to a dumped notebook or the fragility of your memory. (Crypto wallets, etc)
Climbing or a similar extreme sport will teach you applicable skills but more importantly give you experience forcing your body to comply with your WILL when it’s screaming stop.
this will be an ongoing brain dump…
thanks for making it free, hopefully a few of these tips are worth whatever the sub cost is….
The Blade Runners also used spray foam. Very effective and cheap. Absolutely can destroy a surveillance camera. Spray it in a key hole to jam a lock. Fill an exhaust pipe. Use your imagination.
I pinned this comment this so relevant.
Also black spray-paint functionally wrecks cameras.
I've seen videos of vandals that got caught because the black spray paint dripped off the hydrophobic coating on the camera that they assumed they had neutralised.
If spray foam is too messy and obvious I'd be inclined to go for blu-tac or greenstuff depending on how annoying you want to be. Either way use gloves. Both preserve fingerprints.
I'd suggest chewing gum but I assume that preserves DNA.
Good one. Spray foam and spray paint can be utilized in many ways to great success.
One thing I noticed that was left out, unless I missed it in the food and snacks section was water. I might have just missed it in the 116 pages but a 3 liter hydration bladder will be absolutely necessary and also a list of places in one's maps to obtain fresh and clean drinking water.
Just one thing that came to mind after thinking on this a bit.
Very true (Pinned)... It was the "Snacks and drinks" section, but I editted in some key advice on water specifically and how to safely source it.
Mind you this one is actually less urgent than you might think, given almost all Urban areas have water fountains scattered fairly generously around parks, paths and bike routes. (This should be mapped out or written down in your notebook) And Hose accesses in almost all parks (though this you'd probably want to boil, hoses are sometimes just from wells and not tested)
Whereas edible snacks or flavored stuff (sugar, caffine etc.) are not given out for free at 2am outside camera view.
But yes especially for a longer insert/exfiltration bringing your own water is essential. And I should have been explicit about that.
The high vis vests and construction worker ploy worked for the France jewelry heist in broad daylight a week ago.
Yep. A few others here in the states have used this in the past as well. One comes to mind where in some big city some years ago and anon out an ad on Craigslist for day labor and told all who were "set to work at the job site" to wear orange hardhats and vests and show up at a certain location at a certain day and time. Possibly a hundred people (can't remember the exact number) showed up to the "work site" and the anon actually used them as cover to hiest a bank or jewelry store or something like that while dressed in hardhat and safety vest etc and so the police were looking for someone dressed in this manner and found a shitload of them all hanging around the AO and as far as I remember they never caught the guy or guys who pulled the heist.
Digital security is another shelf of books, but be aware that any digital camera has a unique fingerprint of pixel noise for that particular copy of sensor chip. Do not post pictures on a traceable account taken with the same camera used for secret stuff. This can be defeated by pretty basic image editing such as downsizing to 50%, but you still have EXIF data and other camera identifiers, best to just keep separate tools.
Also: zip ties.
Fascinating work Kulak.
There’s a navigation/sighting trick that might be useful. Every human’s fist, held at arms length, takes up the same angle of vision as seen from the owner’s eye. If I recall correctly, each knuckle was ~5 mills, with the entire fist being about 20 mills.
What that means is that you can use an easily identifiable landmark and take accurate measurements that can then be given to someone else, without any tools whatsoever.
“The stash is under the bush 3 knuckles to the left of the flagpole, as seen from the fire exit”
“From x, take a bearing 3 fists right of the park bench and walk 600 paces “
Add a cheap stopwatch that does not automatically generate significant noise.
Or teach yourself how to keep track time through a non-intensive techniques such as binary counting.
For example, if you are Travelling at 60 MPH, your finger taps at 15 iterations will give you a quarter mile lead time on the next critical move.
There are perhaps infinite ways to conduct this behavior, and once you train yourself in a particular way (tactile, visual, auditory (auditory is tactically subpar), you’ll never forget it like riding a bike or how to sanitize water.
So learn this or buy an analog stopwatch that doesn’t make noise.
The ability to dead reckon, or merely have a general understanding of where you are 60-360-720-1440-2880-etc seconds in the future depends on your ability to do this.
Definitely. Stopwatch can be obtained very cost efficient and be used for a lot of different angles.
Haven’t finished yet but I gotta throw some more shit on the hobo list. First makeup, you can completely fuck a surveillance net with makeup. Now you do need to be phillipina with body issues good to fool real people but caking yourself in bad eye shadow and shit contour with still wreck a camera and people will just think you’re a queer. A full kit can be purchased for $5 at every store in the world.
Pac beads for land navigation. 90¢ of craft supplies on flat featureless terrain these let you nail you distances to a couple dozen yards.
What is this referring to? I tried looking it up but it just showed me some pacman themed craft projects.
Pace or ranger beads my apologies for missing the spelling error. It’s essentially a string of beads on a string by counting up the beads an every time you take set number of steps a damn accurate dead reckoning of distance traveled can be kept. I know that rosaries and prayer ropes have been used for the same purpose as well.
Ohhh neat.
So like tactical rosary beads. I love the visual, very 40k.
I'll have to try that.
Very 40k unfortunately a rosary isn’t as good as a full set of rangers which really are a land nav abacus in the right hands. I know guys that can nail themselves to within a 100 yard box with them and a good compass.
What's a full set of rangers? I tried looking it up and I got power rangers stuff.
Dead reckoning is an amazing skill. I've done it at sea and it's hard as hell, but the people who're good at it are godly. My grandfather once navigated through a storm using only dead reckoning. When they were clear my uncle took a sun sight and they were only a few hundred yards apart.
Great work on putting this together. The cheap and cheerful option has so many advantages in many areas of life.
I would add the shepherd sling. Made easily from two pieces of paracord and a hunk of denim. With a little practice you can throw an egg-sized rock well over 150 yards and remarkably accurately too. So small it tucks into any pocket, and you can take one anywhere without anyone knowing what it is. (I'm pretty sure that's what the ancient peltists were using on the battlefield with their lack of elastic bands.)
Great write up, although I did miss the most basic and cheap weapon, the walking stick. A loaded shilleleagh is a 3 foot mace and will break arms and legs, and while the nice blackthorn ones take 3 years to make, you can make a nice oak one from a sapling with a hatchet.
Very inconspicuous when hiking, also very useful for hike and trail and the number of secondary uses of a lever are practically infinite.
Somewhat more limited use for tactical urban hobo hijinks.
Inconspicuous on walking trails, but very conspicuous in any urban setting. Almost no one affects a cane. Perhaps with a suit and opera cape?
Can't fit it in e.g. a backpack unless it's collapsible, which makes it much more work to make (or more expensive and suspicious to buy), lighter, and less reliable.
So you're leaving it in a place to do the dirty, and picking it up later, or abandoning it.
Unless you fake a limp. Though that makes you easier to pick out in a crowd.
The ski poles some people use for walking might be a little less conspicuous, but they're less useful for hitting things, and you have to be dressed to match.
The old style "curve head" canes are something you can take anywhere, no opera cape required. It does help if you are further along the age curve (vs a 20-something).
A note about bicycles-Never rely on inner tube patches. I've been cycling for years and have only had one patch actually last. Always carry spare inner tubes and ALWAYS get the heavy duty variety. If you have to change a tube you want it to last and you cannot, CANNOT, rely on a cheap, lightweight tube.
Another advantage to bikes is that you will have mirrors on both handle bars which will improve your surveiling activities.
Interesting read.
Something that's been bugging me recently is how sports have diverged from military training. In the classical world almost all sports were practicing some military skill or other, should we be forming urban orienteering teams and trying to stalk celebrities like papparazi?
Edit: Also, I was thinking, would there be any value in a homemade device that combined the digital needs of this list?
It wouldn't be at all hard to make an arduino project that combines an MP3 player, GPS reader, clock, stopwatch and red/white torch.
All of the components are generic and hard to trace, especially if you order them from aliexpress. All that'd be required to assemble it would be basic soldering skills and a 3D printer for the case. It wouldn't be hard to make it look like something else either, like a phone or a beeper.
It's main advantage is you could be doubleplusgood sure that it doesn't have any weird backdoors since you can audit the software yourself, and all the chips involved are too simple and well documented to snitch on you.
I think sports that train military skills would be harder to monetize.
Special clothing and gear, arenas set up for TV cameras, etc. vs. drone cameras (driving one of those is a new skill compared to studio/stadium cameras), and likely worse lighting.
Camo clothing looks generic unless you're really into it, vs. readily visible team clothing that can be sold and identifies you as a follower.
Yes, there are the people who buy this stuff. But they're buying it already, and it's possible that orienteering sports leagues might actually depress sales from them.
Airsoft already has a huge following, I don't think it'd be a huge issue.
This has most definitely been a good return on my patience and as you stated a good jumping off point.
It's amazing how alike we think. I especially liked the section on knives/machete/ blades, as a blades combat expert myself I really appreciate your takes on that end.
Also the garbage bags are something I've used extensively for many years. Those and various sizes freezer bags/Ziploc bags for waterproof storage.
I will contribute some more of my own tips and tricks for operating on a budget but you've covered most of it already.
Seriously, this is a really great piece of work here and I actually think I'm in love.
Again thank you for all of your work. It is invaluable and will be worth it weight in gold in the struggles to come.
Because they are coming. The shit is definitely about to hit the fan in the next few years.
Warning with Ziplocs: think of them as water resistant not water proof. Even name brand freezer bags "leak" if *holding* liquid or wet food. Back in the day there were hyper-expensive ones marketed for phones, etc. that were great and actually waterproof but they were still a plastic bag that wore out making the initial high cost prohibitive.
Absolutely. I mainly use them as a barrier. Never rely on them 100%
Always an interesting read. Still making my way through the WRL !
Love the idea of stalking like paparazzi but I'd prefer stalking NGO board members who facilitate migration/invasion.
I'd pay to learn the home address of Amy E. Pope, the director of the United Nations International Office of Migration in Geneva, Switzerland.
The trouble with the gas kit bike is unless you're in da hood it's a rare loud cop magnet of a vehicle. You have a strong chance of being pulled over, having your ID checked, and being the most unusual thing the cop saw that week. If your charisma score is low enough, your unlicensed motorcycle is getting impounded and you have a court date.
Ebike (meaning ~15mph electric bicycle, not a surron) batteries can be swappable if you know how to solder. It's just voltage in and out. With extra packs you can get enough range to go from one end of a city to the other and back, then you can still pedal depending on weight, or recharge if you find a power outlet. It's perfectly legal if you're within the power limits for your jurisdiction, and trendy among city commuters.
Band-Aid waterproof medical adhesive is S tier
You may also want to add a Katadyn UV light steriliser. Good for thousands of litres of water, runs of AA batteries, no fire required, can be paired with a cheap prefilter as well for physical contaminants. Or an eye dropper with bleach will purify a lot of water.
A speedy stitch and spare thread will give you the capability to mod or repair textiles anywhere.
A foam climbing helmet is going to be lighter than a skateboard and all typically feature a head lamp mount (you don’t want to wear a headlamp directly on your head for hours at a time)
Collapsible water bottles (hydropak) can be had in large sizes (8L down to .5L)
Lighter and less volume. But originally developed for MACVSOG who was being exposed by water sloshing in canteens.
If you want to rappel you would be well advised to learn how to fashion a harness from webbing (YouTube) and to pick up 5 mil rap line and some locking carabiners (HMS style)
A portable LIPO battery pack or a stock of AA or AAA batteries (ideally your gear runs off the same size battery)
Potentially trekking poles if covering lots of ground. (Carbide tipped ones may double as anti material or a stabbing implement)
NOLS literature would serve any hobo well.
Learn how to tape sprains and strains.
A second hand (Facebook marketplace / CG) Garmin watch (set up without the app) may be a suitable replacement for the handheld GPS in addition to timers, sunrise sunset etc
also Saran wrap. Frequently used on ambulances to make an occlusive dressing.
Marlin spike will be useful for knots (and the same things an ice pick is good at)
Old Eink tablets are dumb, and have an insane battery life, near limitless PDF capacity and can be found second hand for cheap.
open source USB password managers can provide security for accounts and passwords you can’t afford to lose to a dumped notebook or the fragility of your memory. (Crypto wallets, etc)
Climbing or a similar extreme sport will teach you applicable skills but more importantly give you experience forcing your body to comply with your WILL when it’s screaming stop.
this will be an ongoing brain dump…
thanks for making it free, hopefully a few of these tips are worth whatever the sub cost is….