Maybe if he'd use a micro-SD, he could swallow it. Or hide it pretty much anywhere cause it's the size of a fingernail. Dump the empty micro-SD/SD-adapter into one of those typical "computer paraphernalia" boxes always found on any desk, you know, the one that also contains an aged USB stick, three paperclips, a PS2-USB adapter, post-its, ear-phones and some USB cable, and nobody will expect a thing.
LOL. More details please.
In the rubble we found his camera, which was of course useless if not because of the heat[2], then because of the water damage from the fire-fighters.
Inside was a 2GB SD card and it still worked.
So yeah, if for some strange reason you can't keep your backups off-site, nor in a fire-proof safe, store them on a SD card in a camera :-)
[1] He also wasn't insured, making the story even sadder. Fortunately he just landed a pretty good job, also he met his current girlfriend while staying at his parents until he found a new home. So some good came of it, I suppose. [2] Glass windows melted, can you imagine? Looks like icicles. I later asked a glassworker friend, she said that means it must at least have been 800 degrees Celsius.
That's at least what I imagined, his setup might be completely different (a keyboard combination for logging out might also work better).
if the SD card is not mounted when the user logs in the system is automatically shutdown too.
Basically the SD card only fights against using the computer. You of course could remove the hard drive and mount it in another computer, but that is why the whole drive is encrypted.