3 Break-ins - 1 Month

[HoustonPizza]

We’ve been in business over 12 years and only had 3 or 4 break-ins and nothing was ever stolen. The last month has been terrible. We live in the Houston suburban area and apparently small businesses are the main targets lately.

Our first location was broke in and nothing was stolen…cost us $500 for new glass in the front door for a middle of the night emergency call.

One week later our second location was broke in and they stole the tip jar and a box that we have for employees to put their soda money in…maybe they got $20 between the two. Cost us $275 for new glass in front door.

Sunday night…second location got hit again (by the same guy) and this time he came prepared. Busted out the front door glass with a crowbar and stole the safe (using his crowbar and busting it off the counter we had it mounted under). Got the employee tips for the week, operating tills, a little cash from Saturday nights sales, and our brand new soda box with a little money in it…probably about $600 total. Bad news…alarm company didn’t call to tell us alarm went off until 2 hours later so the guy had all the time in the world to drag the safe out the front door.

This is really getting old. Looks like we are going to have to install some type of burglar bars. Talked to our landlord and they said something about strip bars that attach on the inside and screw into the window frames. Any recommendations?

 

[PizzaDiva]

Try the company you’ve been dealing with for your glass. They might have a door/window division and have access to the product you are looking for. Hubby just installed one for a friend that was experiencing the exact same invasion. He got it at the lumber company he frequently uses but they have a special division of doors and windows so all lumber companies might not carry this. The activity has ceased; well worth the investment. Additionally, if you have a buddy in construction or know how to install it yourself, you will save a good chunk of change on the installation fee.

PD

 

[paul7979]

Houston
Do you have an siren on your alarm? I can’t see someone spending much time in the store if the siren is going off. I would be very concerned that since this a-hole got so much that he will likely return. Window bars will help, but if they had time to do everything they did last time, it might not deter them. My suggestions on top of adding window bars:

-New alarm monitoring company-possibly new panel/glass breakage sensor is a must/with siren
-New quality safe held to floor with 4 heavy bolts
-Video cameras with securely locked DVR possibly hidden as well as secured
-All Cash, tills, tip jars ect kept in safe overnight
-Make sure all employees are aware of the steps you are taking as these are sometimes done by former employees or friends of employees.

One of my stores has been broken into 4 times and at minimum 2 of these were done by former employees.

 

[HoustonPizza]

Actually Paul we do have most of what you have suggested. Everything was in the safe that night except for the little bit of soda money. The alarm does have a siren, and we do have camera system with DVR which is viewable from home. The alarm company we currently have will be fired in the next couple of days because they clearly are not doing what we are paying them to do.

The Sheriff’s dept has suggested that in addition to our motion sensors we get glass breakage monitors, as they said they will respond faster to a glass breakage call than a motion sensor call (they said they see too many false alarms with motion sensors, where the glass breakage can only be one thing). We also plan to get a bigger, heavier safe and bolt to the floor, rather than under the counter.

We have reviewed the videos from all break-ins and it’s not someone we recognize as an ex-employee, but of course that doesn’t dismiss the fact that they could have been sent by a current or former employee.

I totally agree with you that he’s probably going to be coming back again and we hate to have to put bars on our windows because of this one a**hole, but we think if we don’t – he’s just gonna keep busting out our doors. We’ve got good video of his car coming and going and it has a couple of distinct things on it that make it stand out – so we are driving all the apartment complexes in the area. We figure he’s coming about the same time each burglary and probably lives nearby.

Just makes you mad to work your butt off just to have some low life steal from you. It’s just too easy of a crime for them since most of them never get caught.

 

[Registered_Guest]

I used to have a sign in the window:

“Please don’t break the glass. There is no cash inside. Call me at 555-555-5555 and I will bring you $250, that’s more than you’ll get by going inside, and it’s less than I’ll pay to replace the glass.”