Hiding only means they will go to greater lengths to find it. If an agency like this suspects you have something, usually either by informants or by casing your mo over time, they will come in and tear the place up until they find what they are looking for. It's not much different than when someone like the DEA or ATF decide a residence has contraband on it, whether they have real proof or not, it is their level of certainty, also known as reasonable suspicion, that gets them in the door with the metal detectors and the ground penetrating radar and the sniffer hounds and they will tear up everything, inlcuding the back yard and the walls of your house, until they either find what they are looking for or by process of elimination determine it simply isn't there. Oh and once they are done demolishing your house, they might apologize, pack up, and leave. Good luck making a claim for damages then. You are not likely to receive any remuneration whatsoever.

> How do you go about protecting your main survival items that you
> had to leave in your home when you bugged out?
>SNIP<
> When I return I want my stuff there for me

I think there's a disconnect in your comments. If you are bugging out, I don't think you'll have much to return to. People have mentioned Katrina in this thread, and I think that's a good reference point. People _still_ haven't returned to New Orleans. Long term survival in New Orleans did mean looting for food and clothes for those people too poor to get out. If I have to bug out, my thinking is that there won't be much to return to if I even get to return.

In my area (the San Francisco Bay Area), our emergency officers are telling us that if we have a major earthquake and my hometown is destroyed and burned (likely in an earthquake), don't expect it to be rebuilt. Some rebuilding will be done, of course, but they promise the town will not be restored to its former glory.

I won't get the chance to bug out in an earthquake - we won't know it's coming. If you live in an area where you'll have the opportunity to get out of town, you might expect your home to be destroyed while you're gone; if not, major damage. If not major damage, then some. When you come back, you'll have to wait for insurance claims, building permits (depending on the extent of the damage), and you may not have access to supermarkets, stores, and the like for some period of time.

My personal take is that having any contents left is a surprise. If the emergency lasts as long as Katrina, I expect most people to be hitting the stores for food and supplies, not private homes. But if I've left long term, and people are reduced to breaking and entering so they can eat, I'm not going to complain when I get back. I'll be grateful I had a place to eat and sleep.

Frankly, I expect to be one of the people abandoned in place while emergency services providers try to ship us 18-wheelers full of ice.

IMO, hoarding laws target sellers trying to make windfall profit