If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

You have been a prepper for five years, you’ve lived in the same house for the last 10 years. You and your neighbor were almost best friends until you joined the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints church 7 years ago. You quit drinking and smoking, but your neighbor hasn’t. He thinks you are a goody-two-shoes now and harasses you occasionally when your are grilling outside. He only does it when he has been drinking, which is most of the time. You’ve been polite to him but you’ve had to ignore him several times when he got verbally abusive to you in front of your family.

Times are tough economically in the country, the stock market isn’t doing well, businesses are suffering. You work for a highway construction firm and they have a couple of interstate contracts lined up so your work and financial situation is pretty decent. You have been putting away food storage as well as other prepper items for when tough times hit. You are outside with your family on Saturday grilling and splashing around in your above ground pool that doubles as your bulk water storage. You and your family are having a great time together.

Just as you sit down to eat burgers and hotdogs your neighbor leans over the wall. He is not wearing a shirt, he has a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other hand. He yells out that he sees where your teenage daughter gets her good looks from…her mom. He laughs out loud at his own joke before he breaks into a coughing fit. You ignore him, your wife rolls her eyes, your teenage daughter looks upset…and mumbles “gross!” under her breath.

As he walks away he tells you not to worry, when you go out of town to work he will watch over your wife and daughter. Then breaks out laughing one more time before resuming another coughing fit. Your daughter runs into the house knocking over her chair and spilling her plate of food in the process.

Later that night you find out that your neighbor has made comments to your daughter for over two months now when she gets off the bus after school. She hasn’t told you because she was embarrassed. The comments aren’t threatening or lewd, just suggestive. Your daughter is scared of him…for good reason.

It is now two weeks later…the stock market and economy basically crashed about 7 days ago. It is Saturday and you made some last minute runs to Sams Club, Walmart, and the Dollar store. That afternoon you came home with a load and rather than pull into the garage and close the garage door to unload your groceries and other items, you unloaded the SUV in the driveway.

As you finish up the unloading you look over and your neighbor is drinking wine from a bottle, a cigarette in his hand, and flashes you a thumbs up. You realize that you just made a huge mistake by unloading the SUV in plain view of your neighbors. But you have no time to worry about that right now, you leave in the morning to travel to your company’s work-site 250 miles away.

Later that week on Wednesday you get a frantic phone call from your wife. She tells you about coming home with your 14-year old daughter from cheerleader practice. As she and your daughter were getting out of the SUV your neighbor and five of his buddies were drinking in his open garage. They all started yelling very obscene comments about her and your daughter. Your wife is inconsolable and very afraid for their safety. Later that night she finds your 12-yearold son loading a shotgun in his bedroom. He refused to give it to her stating that he will kill the pervert neighbor next time. Your wife begs you to come home even though you are not due home till Saturday.

The next morning (Thursday) you wake up to news reports that truckers have gone on strike nationwide and nothing is moving, no food, no fuel, nothing. There is a lot of violence on the interstates between union and nonunion truckers. Grocery stores empty their shelves by 9am. Gas stations run out of gas by noon. You talked to your boss and he tells you to get back to work, you have a job to do, and you can’t leave till Saturday.

You decide to quit and head home, its 1pm. You get into your pick-up truck just to see your fuel gauge is sitting nearly on empty. You have 250 miles to get home, but it will probably take 10 hours due to the road conditions, strikes, etc. The radio is playing and the emergency notification systems starts with a message that a nationwide curfew will go into affect starting at midnight.

You pound the steering wheel and gaze out the windshield. You are trying to figure out what to do next. As you are trying to figure that out, you find yourself staring at the company’s fuel storage tank that is nearly full.

Nine hours later you are pulling into your driveway just to see your neighbor and three of his buddies still drinking. You have to park in your driveway because there is no room in your garage to park. You want to say something to your neighbor but decide the time is not right. Although he has different ideas…he starts yelling that he appreciates all the prepping you’ve done. He says he and his buddies will help themselves to anything they want that is yours…anything. And then they start cat-calling and whistling.

Just then your wife starts coming outside because she heard you drive up.

Answer the following questions:

1. You filled your truck’s fuel tank up from the company fuel storage tank. How do you justify it and make it right?
2. What is your most imminent risk right now at this moment as your wife is walking towards you?
3. How do you deal with your son and the shotgun?
4. You decide you are going to talk to your neighbor about the comments concerning your wife and daughter? When and how do you do that?
5. What is your plan to deal with your neighbor regarding his remarks about your food storage, etc.?
6. What actions do you take 30-days later when your neighbor is threatening to take your food because his kids are starving?

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