Robbed again

SenseiSteve

SenseiSteve

HD Moderator
Staff member
Well, my Salon was robbed again last Thusday evening, only this time I caught the robber on security cameras. Fortunately the only thing he got away with was our money drawer, which had nothing but some quarters, dimes and nickels in it.

He did bust the glass in my front door and that cost me $571.23 to replace. OUCH. I had new glass put in and was open for business the following morning, so it didn't affect any of our customers. He was only in our Salon for 37 seconds and had already been gone for 3 minutes before our alarm company called our home. Am I frustrated? Yes. Am I mad? Yes. I'd like 37 seconds alone with this guy. :box:

I don't think I've ever heard of a hosting provider being robbed - grossly mismanaged maybe or robbed by it's employees.
 
Yes Romes, I own an eight chair Salon, with pedicure and manicure stations. This makes the fourth time we've been robbed in five years. I need to make up my losses. Do you need your hair cut?
 
37 seconds! Sounds like the guy knew exactly where he was going and what he was looking for!

Unfortunately with those types of store fronts you're pretty much forced to have a large glass front and expose yourself. The only thought would be to do something like what Mail Boxes Etc do - they partition off the main part of their store with a security rollup at night time. The down side is that if you put up something like that or bars on the window you give daytime visitors or those passing by, the idea that either your business is not safe, or the community is not safe.

Wonder if you can promently display a camara in the window facing out to show potentials that they will be on camara?

3 minute response time is pretty lacking too - although really there wouldn't have been much you could do even if they called within 20 seconds :(
 
Ouch, I hate the feeling. I am very sorry to hear about the robbery. I've been robbed before of both the money and physical items. I look at it this way: on a scale of all the bad things that can happen to you (you can die, get sick, lose someone close, lose a job, a house, etc), every time something minor takes place, I am thankful it wasn't one of the critical and most important things on that list.

Having said that, where are all your salons? Are they all in the same city? State? Nationwide?
 
Unfortunately, you're right, Conor. We'd lose customers if we put anything on the glass. And it's pretty obvious we have security cameras - two pointing directly at the front door from different angles. And the robber looked directly at the monitor on the front desk when he broke in.

The security company calls the salon first, then our home and cell phones. I don't understand the delay in calling us, but you're right - it wouldn't have made any difference. I made it there 11 minutes after the robber left, and 3 minutes before the police arrived.

Aloha Salons is in Spanish Lake, an unincorported area of North St. Louis County. www.alohasalons.com

And you're right Artashes....I spent a good amount of time at Chidren's Hospital over the weekend with my daughter and granddaughter - found out she had a staff infection and we all had to take bleach baths last night. She'll be better - but we had no clue what was wrong with her. Put being robbed on the back burner for us.
 
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Not really .... I was in my customized Calvinator transportometer. It helps that I live very close to the Salon. :D
 
Actually, there are two police stations closer to my salon than my residence. For alarms though, they dispatch patrol cars in the field. I've changed the policy at the alarm company to call the police first, hoping that will help.
 
I worked for a Security Company for a number of years as the operations manager, and I have to say the 3 minute response time from when the alarm went off to when you were called is an excellent response time. I'll explain why.

Your alarm goes off. The Alarm panel then needs to contact your monitoring station and communicate with the alarm receivers. That takes on average 30 - 45 seconds. The receivers then send the signal to an alarm operator sitting at a work station. The account is brought up and he needs to read the accounts instructions.

The account instructions tell him what to do (based on your instructions when you set the account up) - Dispatch the police to run the alarm, dispatch a Security company to run the alarm, or contact the business owner. Some times two of the above. That’s another 30 - 60 seconds. Then he has to make the call. All in all, 3 minutes was a great response time.

Sucks your place was broken into, but good on ya for having a CCTV system in place. Did the police manager to identify the person on the video?

Have you given any thought to getting someone in to perform a security audit - IE CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design). How much lighting do you have in the area? Statistically speaking, brightly lit areas have a 90% reduction in break-ins and theft than dimly lit areas and I can guarantee this was a driving factor in the crime.

99% of thefts and break-ins are crimes of opportunity. Take the opportunity away by changing the variables, and you greatly reduce your chances of being a victom.

Steve-Hostirian said:
The security company calls the salon first, then our home and cell phones. I don't understand the delay in calling us, but you're right - it wouldn't have made any difference. I made it there 11 minutes after the robber left, and 3 minutes before the police arrived.
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My advice to you, clarify the instructions on your monitoring account as follows.

First call - Security company to run the alarm
Second call - You as the property rep (you will only be called if the Security company finds an issue)
Third call - Police in the even a break in is verified.

Reasons for the above order -

If you call the police first and its a false alarm, you get billed for a false alarm. Usualy anywehere from $100 - $150 per instance.
If you diapatch a Security company, you get a dispatch bill, usualy around $30 - $35.

Commercial and Residential alarms are usualy a low priority for police as 95% of alarms are false, caused by faulty equipment, air conditioning or heating units kicking in and blowin blinds / plant leaves setting off the motion sensors. Unless the alarm is varified as an actual alarm (usualy done by the number of hits on the alarm, IE: glass break alarm, followed by multiple mostion detectors, a door alarm and so on - multiple alarms within seconds). The police will always take their time getting to them uless they are told it is an actual break-in and its been verified.
 
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How about insurance? Maybe it is time to work on it?
OR maybe it is better to buy doors bullet-proof glass?

I am not joking, maybe then you can catch that fool..
 
@dr_dats. I don't have problems with false alarms, and in the event we do have one, it's a $25 fine ... which I can live with. I also worked for a security company in Hollywood, Florida. Security companies are out of the question - their response time would be horrible, and it would ultimately be turned over to the police anyway. The lighting is excellent and I leave half the lights on in the shop and the window blinds are left open - meaning break-ins are completely visible to traffic. The suspect will be able to be identified from the video. The back door has 3 different types of locks on it, so there is no escape through the rear exit, forcing the robber to park around back and walk to the front, then walk back around the building to the back to escape. I monitor and record Salon activity from my residence via the Internet. This particular robber has a history of hitting multiple businesses on the same night, so showing police the video immediately helps them be on the lookout elsewhere.

@host1plus...bullet proof glass is out of the question. Aside from the expense, they'd just break the large glass windows to gain entrance. As it is, these windows already cost over $1000 for normal glass.
 
host1plus said:
How about insurance? Maybe it is time to work on it?
OR maybe it is better to buy doors bullet-proof glass?

I am not joking, maybe then you can catch that fool..
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I was wondering myself if you've looked into insurance paying for anything
 
Gears said:
I was wondering myself if you've looked into insurance paying for anything
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Here's the insurance problem ... once you submit three claims, no insurance company will cover you, and you can't stay open for business without insurance coverage.
 
once you submit three claims, no insurance company will cover you, and you can't stay open for business without insurance coverage.
Click to expand...

Hmm... doesn't that beat the purpose of being insured? I find the situation rather ridiculous.
 
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