Weirdest robbery we've ever dealt with

[Todd's Car Wash]

How many employees have keys to your facility, the code to your alarm system, and keys to the office?

Not many.

My store GM opened up today, and she called me at 7:40 AM and told me that the entire safe was missing. There was no forced entry, the alarm was turned off, and the office door was still on the hinges.

Thankfully yesterday was a slow day because of bad weather, so we were only missing $215 + $300 starting drawer and two unclaimed paychecks. Now we have to buy a new safe. Maybe we'll bolt it down this time.

We think it was the GM's brother. We fired him for stealing and cursing in front of customers. He begged for another chance but we wouldn't hire him back. Since he lives with her, and probably knew the code to get in, we think he took her keys and stole the safe because she said he came home late last night after he borrowed her car which had the keys in it.

As if I don't have other things to worry about..

 

[Indiana Wash]

You have a safe? I don't have a single safe at my wash. All vaults in the concrete. They are a pain to get into even with the combinations.

I believe that Sam's club sells Winchester gun safes like I have in the basement of my residence. Mine is the high dollar one that weighs around 1000 lbs. I don't think that anyone could steal it without a wrecker or maybe two guys and a truck and enough time. The other thing about a nice safe like that is that they are very difficult to open. I participated in a robbery investigation where the thieves had access to a safe like that for more than 2 days. They had cutting torches, sledgehammers and drills and could not open the safe in 48 hours. They cut the hinges off. They tried to burn through, but the gypsum and concrete filled walls did not burn. They even beat it with a sledge, but the 12 1.25" chrome rods that hold it close didn't budge. That would be my suggestion for a new safe.

 

[bigleo48]

BTW, the alarm system should have a log of all usage. So it should tell you what code was used at what time. Once you know the code and who it belongs to, you can go from there.

I hope you use different codes for every employee.

Finally most systems will allow you to have it call you or SMS whenever entry or exit code is entered...some may allow you to do this between certain hours. This is a nice way to track your employees time and let you know if they actually show up! I use to use this for my cleaning lady. I paid her for two hours to clean our house...in the end she was spending less than an hour and I confronted her, she lied about the time and I fired her.

BigLeo

 

[pitzerwm]

I had mine set up so that any entry outside of opening and closing generated a call from the alarm company to me. If the cops can't solve that one, you need a new mayor.

 

[Todd's Car Wash]

Back when pagers were "in" the alarm dialed out and told me it was armed, disarmed, or 911 for alarm. We upgraded our other 3 locations to the new GE system but the installer never did get around to my New Iberia location.

As for the logging of users, I called Five Star to get the log and they said that it isn't active on my account. The log feature has to be enabled in the box for paging to work, and I never turned it off, so I don't see how the log isn't available. They can pull the logs from the other systems though.. I told them to send a technician to check on my alarm box and he's going to come tomorrow so hopefully I'll have an answer then.

This location is 20 years old and it wasn't built with an in-ground safe, but now it doesn't sound like a bad idea to break a hole and put one in.

 

[bigleo48]

Todd,

I learned to program my system by just downloading the manual off the net. You may be able to find yours and key in what's needed to get the log.

BigLeo

 

[JJJakubowski]

Floored

I know some operators who, back in the day, had their safes set in the concrete when they had their floors poured ... and some who have cut out a chunk of an existing floor and re-poured to accommodate a retro-fit floor safe.

A floor safe is as low profile as they get --- virtually invisible when covered by a soap barrel of whatever. And it's something you just don't pick up and haul away. Of course, it's probably be a good idea for a pump room floor install of a safe to be waterproof.

Anyway, I'm curious --- have many/any of you gone that route?

JJJ/SSCWN
-------------------------------
The Poster Formerly Known

 

[Todd's Car Wash]

We are going to put a safe in the ground sometime next week, but check this out.

This past week while at ICA, my manager had been taking the deposits directly to the office in Lafayette because there was no way to lock it up being that the safe was stolen. She got someone to take her place Thursday, and the deposit stayed in the desk drawer, totaling $1,430 in cash plus a $300 starting drawer.

In advance, "someone" glued the alarm magnets in the outside bathroom together. At 5:30 AM or so, they broke into the bathroom next to the office, used my ladder to climb up and pop out the ceiling tiles, jumped into the office, took the cash, kindly left the checks and credit card settlements, climbed back over, knocked off his hat, and left. Thankfully his hat fell off, and that bastard wears a Mets hat every day at work so I knew exactly who it belonged to. There would have been no way to know who it was. He confessed to it and now he's in jail.

If you ever have a chance to hire a man named Chad Gros, pass.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

If you put your money in a floor safe I would strongly suggest that you double wrap it in zip lock bags. Just in case there's a water leak and my/your safe floods.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Years ago it was in Vogue to wrap a chain around a safe and drag it thru the wall with a wrecker and open it later.

My dad then had a form built around the safe which was about 3 feet high, and had the thing encased in concrete all around with 6 inches of concrete leaving openings for the doors.

Years later during a remodel we needed to remove the thing and it took several hours with a jackhammer to get the concrete off so we could move it.

 

[MEP001]

I remember someone who did the same thing with vac vaults. When he decided to move the islands, it took a crew of three and two jackhammers powered by trailer-mounted compressors two days to chop up the concrete.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I have a safe in the floor. It wasn't installed flush, so I basically just have a trip hazard.