Diversion safes are brilliant little devices, the most common being an actual product can consisting of a hollowed out interior with a hard core cavity inserted into the can and a screw-top attached to the original top or bottom of the product container. The cans are weighted and feel like they are half full before you place valuable inside.

I first discovered these safes in the early 1990s when I took a trip to Central America and used a hollowed out can of shaving cream to hide cash. I placed the can on the shelf above the bathroom sink in my hotel room, an act of faith at the time to be sure! I also had several hundred dollars in travelers’ checks that I decided to hide elsewhere in the room so as to spread the risk. After about a week the travelers’ checks went missing but the cash was still in my shaving cream can-diversion safe, right where I left it over the bathroom sink.

Losing my cash might have spelled trouble for me as Central America at that time was still the Wild West. With the recent war in Nicaragua not yet a distant memory, bribe money was a necessity and without it, negotiating areas of war ravaged Central America could have proven a difficult proposition. At the time I was traveling with windsurfing gear and my gear was scrutinized at border crossings, the airport and military checkpoints but no one gave a second look to the more mundane things like my toiletries.

At the same time that I had discovered the shaving cream diversion safe I also discovered a wall socket diversion safe. It looks like a real electrical wall socket but is non-functional and pulls out to reveal a hidden compartment that holds valuables.

 I had bought a new house in Seattle at the time and shortly after moving in and furnishing it I got a call from local police informing me that my home had been robbed and I needed to come home and secure the residence. Upon arriving I found that my front door had been broken down with what I guessed was a sledge hammer and the door frame was destroyed. Most everything in my new home had been hauled off and my wife’s costume jewelry had been strewn about but not taken. It was a catastrophic loss save for one thing. The robbers missed the wall socket safe with tens of thousands in heirloom and valuable jewelry; the most valuable items in the house at the time.

The simple fact is, hiding things in plain sight is often a brilliant move as thieves are most often looking for cash in dresser drawers or  valuables in places such as shoe boxes hidden in closets as well as searching the more remote places in your home for your valuables. With limited time and a tight schedule, robbers often overlook the obvious in their search for such things as hardened safes in the home that they are robbing. A can of soda, carpet cleaner or engine degreaser is seldom given scrutiny in the rush to get in, get the loot and get out. It's not fool proof but it is clever which most criminals are not.

Diversion safes now come in a myriad of guises, from a hollowed out hard cover book to a flower pot. Items as boring as hair spray, Scotch Gard or a can of dog food are my favorite; even on a leisurely day a thief is not likely to pause and open one of these items to discover they are not what they appear to be. I recommend supplementing these safes with a cheap conventional safe that you can purchase at various retail and hardware stores. Place a small amount of cash and fake jewelry inside and employ it purely as a diversion, circumventing a more thorough search for cash and loot, thus amplifying the effectiveness of the diversion safes placed in plain sight on your shelves and in your cupboards.

Hiding things in plain sight is a clever option and one that most creeps don’t consider; after all if they were smart they would have real jobs.