Dear Reader:

What would you say if I asked you to pay me break into your place of business? You would think I was absolutely crazy. Would you think that you’d have to be absolutely crazy to agree to it? Obviously so. Now, what would you think if I asked you to let me pay you to break into your place of business? Which one of us would have to be the crazy one in order to agree to that? The answer to that question is — neither one of us ! 

From a business standpoint, my offer to pay you to break into your place is a smart move, in that I would have an opportunity to show you what your previous locksmith should have shown you. I would obviously then have an opportunity to advise you on a number of possible upgrades, at varying price levels, to fit your budget. The benefit to me is that I gain a new client whose patronage will help me to remain in business. The benefit to you, once these upgrades have been implemented , is that you get to remain in business, too! Now, let me tell you a little story–

I once had a client who I will call Jim (a very nice man, by the way). He was a reasonably successful businessman, and he leased a nice little storefront in DaXXX, Florida. With a half dozen well-trained employees and a wide selection of high-end consumer electronics, and keeping in mind that what he didn’t know about computers wasn’t worth knowing, he should have been poised for a fairly large measure of success. It’s what he didn’t know about security that killed his business.

I first met Jim after he had called me regarding a break-in at his store. It was his misfortune at the time that the rear door of the storefront he had rented was secured with nothing more than a rinky-dink deadbolt sold by (insert the name of your least favorite box store retailer here). Another problem was that the person who had previously installed this deadbolt did so in such a way that the bolt couldn’t be fully extended. I’m sure that the lucky thief who noticed this (thieves are good at spotting cheap locks) was thrilled that the opportunity to merely fish back the bolt and scoot out of there with several thousand dollars worth of computer equipment . Unbeknownst to me, this had been Jim’s second break-in. At the time, I recommended and installed Medeco high security cylinders on both the front and rear doors, with a nighttime security bar in the back (Grandpa used to say that anything worth doing is worth overdoing). And that was the end of that.

Everything seemed fine for awhile, and I would receive calls from Jim to rekey the store after the occasional employee termination. It was at this point that the you-know-what hit the fan. Someone had bypassed the cheap box store deadbolt on the vacant storefront adjacent to his, breaking through the half inch drywall divider, once again traipsing off with many thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment (it was a stunning revelation that nothing separated the two storefronts from each other but a half inch of drywall). Jim’s insurance company was not happy, and neither was Jim.

When I answered the call regarding this unfortunate turn of events, I took a great deal of time in advising him as to how to best protect his inventory against any and all future burglary attempts. I mean, he and I walked every single square inch of that store as he dutifully scribbled down every single one of my suggestions. Afterwards, I told them that I could take no further steps to protect him until these steps had been taken. He thanked me for my time, only to later dismiss my recommendations (even though his insurance company had informed him that his next burglary claim would be declined. I received another call from him sometime later and found that, instead of lining his inventory storage room with solid block, he had decided to have two handymen protect the storage room with a flimsy steel cage inside it.

I protested to him that this cage would be exceptionally easy to defeat, also pointing out that it was only 7 feet high (in a room with 10 foot ceilings), also pointing out that the storage room still had a flimsy door and a flimsy frame, making it unlikely that the store could survive another break-in blitz. But Jim’s handymen had convinced him that their handiwork would stand the test of time. Jim then asked me to put a Medeco deadbolt on the cage (which I did, under protest), and that was the end of that. I believe, however, that he eventually did go so far as to line the side walls of the store with 3/4″ plywood in order to prevent easy access by breaking through the drywall again.

In any case, it was only a matter of time before someone else took a crack at the store. The Medeco deadbolt and nighttime security bar on the rear door kept them from getting in that way. The adjacent storefront had also been leased , and was now protected by an alarm system. The thieves were left with no other choice but to hook up a chain to a truck hitch, and to rip the front door right out of the frame. The inventory, being sorely underprotected, became easy pickings. And Jim’s store is now no more.

Admittedly, one would be hard pressed to protect against such an extreme method of break-in. What could have been prevented, however, was the massive hemorrhage of inventory which forced the store to close forever.

The moral of the story is this:

You can spend money intelligently. You can save money stupidly. The law of the jungle is that, if you can’t protect what’s yours,  it probably won’t be yours for very long. I know it. Thieves definitely know it. And now you know it, too!

The point of the story is this:

I WILL DEDUCT $20. FROM YOUR SERVICE CALL CHARGE TO LET ME SIZE UP YOUR COMMERCIAL SECURITY SITUATION, AND TO MAKE SENSIBLE RECOMMENDATIONS AS TO HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF!  AND YOU CAN HIRE ME TO ACT UPON THESE RECOMMENDATIONS, OR, IF YOU WISH, YOU MAY THEN HIRE ANYONE ELSE YOU WISH TO IMPLEMENT THEM.

At the very least, you are being given a golden opportunity to access the expertise of someone who has dealt with security issues numbering in the thousands over a period of many years, and to do it at a very reasonable cost!

This offer will remain valid until midnight, 14 February 2008 (Valentine’s Day). So don’t buy your store a box of candy to show how much you love it, protect it from those who would do it harm instead.

Here’s hoping that your life will be filled with peace of mind.

Warmly,

Valerie