Put contraband and stolen stock in a Smuggler's Bay or valid locked or hidden storage before the inspection searches your shop. Main inventory, front and back counters, the display case and the trash bin are ordinary searched areas. A container's presence does not protect an item unless its locked or hidden state provides that protection.
Hiding the stock and clearing your Security case file are different tasks. Concealment can prevent a find during the search, but it does not erase evidence from earlier illegal sales. Check both the physical items and your existing record when deciding whether the shop is ready for an inspector.
Audit the places an inspector can search
Start with the surfaces used for normal business. Dangerous goods left at the counter can be easy to forget after a sale, a crafting step or a delivery. Moving another item on top of them does not change the underlying storage category.
The standard searched areas are:
- Main inventory used for the shop.
- The front counter where visitors place goods.
- The back counter used while sorting stock.
- The ordinary display case.
- The trash bin during a full inspection.
Put the goods inside the protected storage, rather than beside it.
Do not check only the largest machine bay or the most obvious crate. A single card, vial or loose weapon can be relevant even when most valuable stock has already been stored safely. Inspect item properties rather than assuming a small object is harmless.
The item you are currently processing matters too. If you take protected stock out to compare a price, assemble a product or prepare a trade, remember that it is now in the new location. Owning protected storage does not automatically apply protection to its former contents after you remove them.
Use a Smuggler's Bay as the primary hiding place
Smuggler's Bays are designed to hide contraband from inspections. Move the risky items into the bay itself and confirm that they fit. Leaving a bay beside an exposed gun is not equivalent to putting the gun inside it.
Protected capacity is a real limit. Before accepting a large stolen crate, check whether you have space for that exact item shape alongside the goods already hidden. A bay that has spare cells in an unusable arrangement may not hold the next purchase you intend to make.
Use this preparation sequence:
- Identify the contraband or stolen marking on each risky item.
- Open the intended protected storage.
- Move the item fully into that storage.
- Confirm that the main counter and inventory no longer contain the exposed item.
- Recheck the display and trash for stock you moved earlier.
Do not remove unrelated goods from protected storage merely to create an apparent empty space without deciding where those displaced items will go. The goal is to finish with every risky item in an appropriate location, not to protect only the newest purchase.
A Mini Smuggler Bay and its placement behind the poster have specific geometry and placement questions. Those details belong to that item's placement guide. For an inspection audit, the essential check is that the item is actually inside a functioning protected bay.
Distinguish locked storage from ordinary containers
Security does not find items behind a lock, in a locked container or in a hidden storage state under the documented inspection rules. That is different from any bag or crate merely being a container.
Inspect the relevant state rather than relying on the item's appearance. A box may hold other items without being locked. A familiar bag may be convenient for sorting stock while offering no special inspection protection. The protection comes from the applicable lock or hidden property, not the fact that an object has an interior.
A valid locked container is different from an ordinary open bag.
This distinction matters when you reorganize. If you open or move a container's contents into ordinary inventory, evaluate their new position again. Do not assume the item retains a permanent protected status because it once passed through a locked crate.
Likewise, do not plan around unsupported nesting arrangements. The Hypertech Storage Bay cannot be placed inside Smuggler's Bays. If a hiding method depends on an inventory combination the game does not allow, find a valid arrangement rather than leaving stock exposed while trying to force it.
Close the hidden compartment before the search
The compartment behind the poster is checked when the poster has been pulled aside. Its hidden state matters. Finish any access or sorting action before the inspection rather than leaving the compartment open while assuming its usual concealment still applies.
This is a separate check from whether a Mini Smuggler Bay can fit in that area. The poster controls visibility of the compartment, while the bay is a storage item with its own function. Know which protection your current arrangement relies on.
If you have just moved something behind the poster, verify the final shop state before responding to the inspector. A preparation action is incomplete if the goods moved successfully but the hiding place remains revealed.
Do not use a remembered screenshot of your normal shop layout as proof. During trading, accessing notes or changing storage can leave the layout in a different state. Inspect the actual poster position and exposed objects in the current encounter.
Treat the trash bin as temporary handling space
The trash bin is searched by a full inspector. Only the Lazy inspector skips it. You cannot choose the favorable inspector simply by putting your most valuable stock there, so the bin is not a reliable substitute for protected storage.
There is a second problem at closing: forgotten items can be removed with trash collection. Even if you used the bin temporarily while rearranging goods, retrieve anything you intend to keep before ending the day. Surviving a search is not a useful outcome if the same stock disappears during overnight cleanup.
The launch hotfix repaired specific confiscation behavior involving Smuggler's Bays in the trash and a Mini Smuggler Bay behind the poster. That fix concerns protected bays; it does not turn every loose item in the trash into protected contraband.
If your plan involves putting a bay in an unusual location, confirm that the item you want to protect is inside the bay and that you retrieve anything threatened by cleanup. The outer location, the inner storage and the overnight disposal rule are three separate checks.
Clear the display before inviting more trade
A display is meant to show goods, so it is the wrong place to assume illegal stock is hidden. Check both stolen heat and contraband tier before using an item to attract buyers.
Inspect the legality of small supplies as well as bulky weapons.
An item can create a problem even if its general category is otherwise legal. A household good marked stolen is still stolen, just as a weapon's legal status depends on the applicable permit rather than only its appearance. Read the current tooltip instead of sorting solely by broad item type.
If you want to show a safe example from the same category, inspect that replacement too. Moving one marked object into the bay while replacing it with another marked object leaves the practical problem unresolved.
Return protected stock only when you intend to handle the associated trade and can manage the exposure. There is no benefit in completing a careful storage audit and immediately undoing it to leave the same item visible for the rest of the day.
Know what a find can mean
The consequences depend on what the inspector finds. Low-level contraband can receive a warning, stolen goods and mid-level contraband can be seized, higher tiers can bring fines or arrest, and critical contraband can lead directly to arrest unless an applicable protection intervenes.
This is why a storage check should not stop once the most expensive item is hidden. Value and contraband level are related to different consequences. A relatively small critical item can be more urgent to conceal than a bulky lower-tier object.
Seized items are destroyed rather than conveniently held for ordinary resale. The inspection report records finds, so use it to understand a failure, not as a promise that you can buy the exact inventory back afterward.
Do not rely on Luck or a favorable inspector to replace preparation. A lucky outcome can cause an officer to overlook goods, but it does not establish that the location was protected. The next inspection can still reveal the same exposed stock.
Separate bribes, warnings and evidence removal
A Shady inspector may offer a bribe, while a regular full inspector does not. Do not leave the shop deliberately unprepared on the assumption that every search can be bought off.
A bribe ends that inspection but adds Bribery to your record. Concealment, a bribe and Wild's evidence-related services are different responses to different parts of Security pressure. Treating them as interchangeable makes it easy to pass one immediate encounter while worsening another problem.
Likewise, high Security reputation should not be used as a universal guarantee against routine inspection. The current rules include specific protections and conditions, but ordinary favorable standing alone is not a reason to ignore physical stock handling.
Before finishing preparation, check the counters, display, inventory and bin; verify the hidden compartment is concealed; confirm the actual contents of protected storage; and review the case file separately. That final separation keeps you from mistaking a clean physical search for a clean criminal record, or a reduced record for permission to leave risky items in plain sight.