The Importance of the Element of Surprise

[Psychlonic]

Complacentcy often runs rampant across the human element of security. Even trained militaries fall victim to a comfortable, lazy state of mind brought about by long periods of inactivity. Simply put, people begin to feel safe when there hasn't been a threat in awhile, if at all. They slowly keep a vigilant eye on their surroundings less and less, security systems are sometimes partially deactivated for convenience, locks may go unlocked.
For you, the operative, this can be the single most important variable in the entire operation. Nobody is expecting you and they most definitely are not expecting your approach. If you can avoid being directly seen, you will often find your presence completely unnoticed even after messing up a few times. While this is by no means something to depend on, it should be kept in mind and used to calm your mind in the most stressful of situations.

You may benefit from:

Failure to monitor surroundings.
This is quite common. The fact is that 99.9% of the time, nobody is coming. Investigating every area, even with surveillance equipment, is time consuming and occasionally physically tiring. People begin to assure themselves that they can relax, they may have nothing they see as valuable, or they may place too much faith in their electronic and mechanical security.

Dismissal of minor sights, sounds, and smells.
"Maybe I'm just seeing things." "Maybe that was the neighbors again." When an area goes for a long time without "trouble", then the population begins to lower their guard. They simply don't expect that someone like you would be moving around in the shadows dressed in full camouflage so when they catch just a glimpse, they often shrug it off.

Dismissal of animal noise.
Animals will often sound off at the slightest thing, anything they think is out of the ordinary. 99% of the time however, this source of disruption is not deemed a threat by the owner and therefore the animal is ignored or even silenced.

Unlocked doors.
If the owner does not feel there is anything he needs to lock out, he may not bother locking the doors or may even forget. This is quite rare however, and the chance of this happening varies depending upon the area of operations. One should never assume a door will be unlocked during any phase of the operation.

Deactivated alarms.
Even more rare than unlocked doors are deactivated alarms. This is generally only found in personal homes and even then, if anything it's just going to be a quarantined section of the home for personal convenience. Alarm systems, unless they are simplistic local alarms, can be expensive and thus the owner clearly intends to use it whenever possible. Unless you have 100% reliable intel or have verified for yourself, never assume any part of any security system is deactivated.


The variables that influence your element of surprise often cannot be calculated to an accurate degree as they vary from area to area and person to person based on their lives and experiences. The purpose of listing off possible advantages you may enjoy is not to give you a tool to use on an operation - never assume - but instead the idea is just to ensure you that you're typically going to have an edge in the fact that nobody is really expecting you, much less your approach. Whether or not you get huge bonuses such as an unlocked door is all up to chance. The human element of security is imperfect and usually revolves around comfort. Observing the Law of Readiness in addition to honing your skills and wearing the right gear will make the need of this unimportant, but in the event you slip up yourself, you might just find yourself thankful for it.