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Security Issue with WS2

J

John_Thomas

Member
Hello all,

Just wanted to let everyone know that someone busted out the coin cup in my Wash Select 2. The coin cup is made of some type of cast material that is nowwhere near as rigid as a metal cup (of course not much can hold up to a sledgehammer). They were then able to go through that hole and get into the bill acceptor cartridge. Fortunately there was no money in the machine as it was a rainy Monday here in OKC. This guy definately knew what he was doing. He found a weakness that I could never have imagined.

The stems that hold and secure the coin cup were welded into place at factory. Those are now destroyed and unuseable. It was suggested to me to go ahead and drill through the door to refasten a new coin cup using stainless steel screws and nylon nuts. The cost of replacing the door, new decal, new coin cup is $1078 and for an extra $50.00 the good folks at Unitec will apply the new decal for you.

Ill let everyone know how easy/difficult the new fix is just in case this happens to someone else.
 
Thanks John,

How can he get at the bill acceptor? Was he able to get his hand in, pop the cartridge off, unlock the plate and pull the bills out? I suppose you likely have a different bill acceptor than my Cash Co.
 
Hello,

After breaking out the coin cup, he was able to break the stacker off the back of the bill changer. It was a MEI. Once it dropped, he was able to mangle it up with some type of metal bar and then extract any bills that were in there. I was shocked. It could have been worse though, he could have put a chain around the machine and hauled the whole thing off.
 
After being in business since 2003, had my first WashSelect 2 broken into. Had to install a new door/decal/lock and buy a new bill validator and was so much cost and a big headache but I was only down 4.5 days before getting it all repaired. From the good info shared here at the Forum I found out from someone's post that Unitec sells a door vibration alarm that had I known about this great product being available; I surely would have bought one to arm my WS2s w/ this feature. When the vibration alarm is triggered, my WS2 will actually send my smartphone a page and also an e-mail alert. I'll bet had I had this loud alarm installed to begin with, this hoodlum would have fled so quickly after triggering it off early rather than comfortably and confidently being able to spend the 45 minutes he did w/ a crowbar to finally break the door open to steal the bill box and remove the coin hopper!
 
This morning at 2:35 my WashSelect 2 was rammed by a pick-up truck put in reverse. (got an alert on my phone, logged into remote viewing of the site and saw my auto cashier knocked to the ground off its stand. I reviewed the security video and...HA! The Unitec door vibration alarm was immediately triggered when they purposely crashed it. On video you see the loser begin to panic since the siren was blaring so loudly! You then see him grab a chain from the back of his pick-up preparing to yank the unit completely off its base but the driver must have panicked even worse from the loud siren thinking the cops were immediately on their way SO THEY FLED! Had I not had the Unitec door vibration alarm, they would have chained my auto cashier to their POS truck and dragged it w/ them until they could get into the unit to take the bill box and coin hopper. Instead of being out maybe $12,000 worth of equipment I am already back up and running w/ only about 1/12 the cost! Can't recommend enough having a vibration alarm inside your auto cashier. A new stand and I am back up and running thanks to the alarm scaring these guys off my property so quickly! Wanted to share w/ you my good news in an otherwise tiring day of < 4 hours sleep because of these idiots trying to steal my auto cashier but then fleeing before they damaged things worse. And by the way...I have great video of these guys' unique looking, two-tone truck w/ four orange cab lights atop. They WILL be found and get their due.
 
Carl,

Im going to say you were fortunate in not losing the equipment. My Units were my biggest worry until I finally decided to brick them in.

Good luck in catching those bastages and keep us up to date!
 
John - I do consider myself very fortunate that I didn't lose that expensive equipment! So now that I have a new angled Unitec base/stand for my WashSelect II again; I'm thinking I need to "brick in" the unit to make trying to steal it less attractive but I should have thought of this before putting up the same weak, angled base set-up... :eek:
 
Etowah
John, looks good. That’s the smart thing to do, brick around it, make it look like it’s not going anywhere. Any ACW’s that are not bricked in around here last about month and they are gone. It’s a property crime, the police won’t do much around here for a property crime.
 
So I didn't brick in my WashSelect II's and John & all...I FEEL LIKE A HUGE FOOL! Those guys who were unsuccessful breaking into my WashSelect II's in late July/early August...they came back today at 1:37 am and in three minutes time flat -- THEY STOLE BOTH OF MY WASH SELECT II'S! :( I will not detail how easily it was for them to steal these units upon security video review but it's the last time I ever install a Wash Select II mounted on that "pretty" angular stainless steel stand option that they have stood on w/o problems for 11 straight years. These thugs got on site at 1:37 am and by 1:40 am they were gone and so was probably around $30,000.00 worth of equipment! So frustrating! Today was a slow day so we were able to use Square Register to accept credit card payments at our touchfree automatics then run into the equipment room to select the wash that customers desired. PLEASE BRICK IN YOUR AUTO CASHIERS! I will be whenever I am able to get two replacement units 'cause I am afraid these guys will be back 'cause that was so easy for them this morning! (they got $200 in dollar coins from the unit's change hoppers and maybe $135 in total cash & coins from sales and I get left w/ 30K missing equipment) May these guys get their due one day! Be safe, all. - Carl
 
It takes a lot more than bricks to make them secure, but anything that will slow them down would help.
 
Unitec sells a vibration alarm (loud horn) for the WS2. It ties into the key board to arm/disarm.
 
Carl,

As I started reading my heart sunk as I had a feeling what was coming in the rest of the post. I feel for you. Nothing worse then pulling in to the wash and discovering what some low life has ruined everything we work so hard for. Smart idea hand processing cards so you did not lose any sales. Im assuming this is now an insurance claim and after 11 years of service the bright side may be replacing with the top of the line equipment to replace. Options to consider would be internet versus phone modem and the double sided swiper. an approval using internet based processing is so much faster. Literally 3-4 seconds for a card approval versus dial up.

Let me know how everything turns out and I wish the best for you.

John
 
John - Thanks for that! As far as pieces of equipment at the carwash, I honestly love the Unitec Wash Select IIs in how they function and the support I've gotten for them whenever I need it from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, we recently installed WashPay so those two very expensive boards were inside those auto cashiers that the losers took as well. We did already have the upgrade installed of the high-speed Internet processing which we loved and the double-sided card readers 'cause the single-sided ones gave our customers fits! So yeah...it really hurts that to get a total of maybe $335 out of both machines in cash and coin they caused this huge cost for us and the insurance company. It's as if in a world of deals and blackmail I wish I could have instead offered those idiots $500 cash to just leave the machines alone so that I can go about my daily business henceforth but that's not the real world. These guys will be watching to see if I re-install new auto cashiers w/ the same flimsy set-up so they can "get paid" once again by stealing them again. We can't ever live like these losers do in thought or deed but when sane people say, "We can't believe they stole $30,000.00 worth of equipment only to gain $335?!!! Well...I would think that if they could pull this off in three minutes time and "earned" $335, that it was very much worth the effort to them 'cause they don't think rationally! These losers don't seem to weigh the dangers of their being put away in prison for such an "idea" 'cause look...they went ahead and did it and I'm sure they aren't in line for a real job this week and instead are looking for some other innocent businesses to hit. I will do all I can to serve these guys Justice but it's gonna be hard w/o license plates and an apathetic police department...scratch that! Maybe the police are just too busy these days to pursue these types of crimes and I'll give them that to a point so anyhow...thanks...(police said "are the suspects still there?" when I said "no" they said to just file a report w/ the woman on the phone or on the Internet and they will take it from there..no site visit anymore 'cause what can they do?!!) LOL!!...
 
Yes, Ive had that happen before where they take a statement over the phone and give a report number for your insurance company. Unfortunately property crimes are at the bottom of priority list. Prosecuting speeders are more of a priority then burglary. I got so frustrated once that I called the news stations instead of the police. I had two local stations come out and do a live report showing the surveillance video and low and behold someone recognized the perp on tv and turned him in. If you really want them caught there are things you can do to help Police along. Of course you have to weigh showing the video to all the other would be crooks out there showing them how easy it was.
 
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