Be sure to deter them while you're away
Criminals welcome the buffer provided by an extended weekend or holiday during which your jewelry business is closed. They have more time to break in and defeat your safe. And, if they get in and out undetected, they have more time for their trail to grow cold before law enforcement becomes aware of the crime.
A recent rash of overnight safe burglaries in the greater Los Angeles area serves as a sobering reminder that criminals are watching jewelers closely and figuring out the optimal times and methods for breaking into the store and getting into the safe.
The upcoming Memorial Day weekend provides an additional reminder that criminals are paying attention to when jewelers open and close their businesses. They are further noting when the jewelers typically take an extended break for a holiday or vacation. Criminals welcome the buffer provided by an extended weekend or holiday. The store’s extra closed-to-business period gives criminals more time in which to use their tools and torches to defeat the safe. It can also allow more time for the criminals’ trail to grow cold before the jeweler and law enforcement become aware of the crime.
What can you do to protect your premises from burglary, especially when your business is closed for an extended period?
• Respond to each and every alarm signal. Criminals will sometimes trigger numerous false alarms in hopes of desensitizing the jeweler and law enforcement to the alarm condition. Their goal is to lull the jeweler into no longer responding to the alarm. Respond every time. When responding, your guard service or a law enforcement officer should accompany you or your staff while investigating the premises. The investigation should entail more than a cursory check of ground-floor doors and windows. The roof, side walls, and all possible points of entry must be examined.
• Arrange for periodic checkups on your facility by trusted staff, hired security, and/or law enforcement officers. Make widely known the fact that periodic checkups will take place. Do not, however, announce any schedule for these checkups.
• Ensure that your alarm system and its communications with its monitoring facility are working properly.
• Have a call list set up among your trusted staff to respond to all alarms. Make sure that the phone numbers on your call list are accurate and that your alarm monitoring facility has the accurate call list.
• Remind those individuals who are responsible for responding to an alarm condition of the proper response procedures.
• Do not position your safe along a wall adjoining the outdoors or another facility. Criminals are adept at breaking through a wall and penetrating the safe without even entering the jeweler’s premises.
• Make sure your safe provides adequate deterrence. TL-15 and TL-30 safes do little to deter or delay today’s criminals. Inexpensive cutting devices available at hardware and home-improvement stores are capable of cutting into these safes within a fairly short period of time.
• Don’t leave merchandise out at night in showcases. If some items will not fit in your safe, store the extra merchandise out of sight.
• Showcase covers are not a deterrent and can, in fact, serve as an enticement for crime.
• Provide your trusted staff with contact information for your emergency contractors who would board-up broken windows, your insurance agent and/or company, your alarm company, and other emergency contacts.
