12 Days of Holiday Security

12 Shockingly Simple Ways You Can Protect Your Property

As we approach this most festive holiday season, we’ll have visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, as the poem goes. And on that glorious late-December evening as we all settle down for a nice winter’s nap, a jolly old elf—whose best friends are reindeer, apparently—will shimmy down our chimneys and commit the legal definition of breaking and entering.

Oh, and he won’t be the only guy up to such shenanigans.

Most burglars view the holidays as the busiest part of their work year; thieves in the commercial sector are eager to spread their version of good cheer by trying to rob as many unprotected worksites, warehouses and loading docks as they can find.

So, as our gift to you, AMAROK not only wishes you a happy holiday, we’d like to do our part to ensure stays happy with these 12 shockingly simple ways to protect your property.


We’ll post one new tip each day, so be sure to like and follow us on social media or come back here for our daily security gift.


DAY 1 | TIP 1:  
Keep an eye on lurkers outside your perimeter fencing. 
Teach me.

Lurkers at your fence could be burglars doing their homework.  Your perimeter fence is the first line of defense in controlling access to your site and protecting your business assets. However, just having a perimeter fence isn’t a guaranteed deterrent to theft. You must be vigilant with inspecting and maintaining your fence.

The big things to notice are people on the other side of your fence—or evidence that people were over there, recently: lurkers.

Smart burglars like to canvass their potential marks, looking for potential weak spots in your security. To stay ahead of the criminals, conduct regular inspections along your perimeter. Look for evidence of lurking—food wrappers, drink containers and cigarette butts are telltale signs that your place is being cased.


DAY 2 | TIP 2:  
Thieves prefer the dark.
Illuminate them.

Like bats and owls and bandicoots, thieves like to hunt in the dark. Their preferred stalking ground includes unprotected jobsites where they can get in and out undetected.

Here’s the obvious tip to thwart any late-night larcenists: shine a little light their way. Better yet, a lot of light. Make it seem like daytime all around your perimeter and especially around all doors and windows.

Worried about your electric bill? Install motion-detection lighting in all non-lighted areas. The sudden radiance of a 3,000-lumen flood light might be all the motivation a burglar needs to just go home and call it a night.


DAY 3 | Tip 3:
Get creative with your theft deterrence.
Paint me a picture.

When it comes to defeating crime, commercial and industrial-property owners have a lot of leeway. In fact, according to the totally-fictitious and non-existent Commercial Burglar’s Rulebook, there’s just one rule:

The good guys can’t use crime-deterrent devices that could
permanently injure the bad guys.

So, landmines, bear traps, and tiger pits are clearly out.  BUT a perimeter security fence that delivers 7,000 volts of electricity at every touch IS completely acceptable. Here are two more simple yet creative ways to ruin the bad guy’s day:

  1. If you have big-rigs parked on your property, consider removing the batteries and/or wheels during long holiday weekends. Why make it easy for them?
  2. If your building has excessive windows, coat all the windowsills with a consumer lubricant (there’s a popular one called ‘WD-something or other’) to make it more difficult to egress. 

Stop crime. Creatively.


DAY 4 | Tip 4:
Prepare for the ‘inside job’ scenario.
Who can I trust?

It’s unfortunate to admit, but many thefts are committed or facilitated by employees. During the holiday season, you may employ temporary workers, or your place of business may deal in high-end merchandise that’s just too tempting.

We know what you’re thinking. “It’s hard enough to thwart the thieves who don’t have free access to your property interiors, so now you have to keep tabs on the people who are supposed be working there during normal business hours?”

Luckily, there’s a simple solution. We call it The Buddy System, and here’s how it works:

Assign TWO employees to complete all tasks involving cash, finances
or expensive equipment.

We learned The Buddy System way back in elementary school during field trips. Back then, they used it to avoid losing students. Today, you can use it to avoid losing stuff.


DAY 5 | Tip 5:
False alarms might not be false. 
Tell me the truth.

False alarms might not be false. Seasoned criminals will often trigger security alarms to gauge law enforcement response times. Another common ruse is to repeatedly trip the alarm to mislead security personnel into ignoring the ‘false alarms’ or shutting the system down.

So, how do you prevent these super-sly burglars from using your alarm system against you?

According to security experts (i.e., us), the best way is to limit their access to property areas that can trigger the security alarms in the first place, like doors and windows.

A 7,000-volt electrified perimeter security fence does that job, nicely, by the way.


DAY 6 | Tip 6:
“X” Marks the spot for thieves, too.
Help me find it.

‘X’ marks the spot for thieves, too.  Have you ever noticed chalk or pencil marks around doorways at your place of business? Unsavory employees and/or visitors may subtly mark exterior ‘break points’ during business hours to quickly identify the best entryway under the cover of dark.

Burglars also use these chalk marks to communicate with other burglars. For example, if you spot a chalk circle drawn on your property exterior, it very well could be a message that means, “This is place is ripe for picking.”


DAY 7 | Tip 7:
Getting prank calls could mean you’re already getting robbed. 
Give me the 4-1-1.

Getting prank calls could mean you’re already getting robbed. Are you receiving phone calls with no answer on the other end? Dismissing these calls as pranks could cost you.

The heyday of teenage prank calls diminished right about the time disco died, so if you’re receiving an unusual volume of evening calls (especially if your place of business is closed at night), it might not be a prank.  Some thieves will park near your property and call the location phone to determine if a guard is on duty. They may also use the ringing phone to alert an accomplice who is already on site. 

Establish security protocols for any night-duty employees and/or security officers for such scenarios and put an end to the party line.


DAY 8 | Tip 8:
Plan your theft deterrence in layers. 
Lay it on me.

Okay, so you’ve succeeded in protecting your property from burglary with such measures as an electrified perimeter security fence, motion-detection exterior lighting and intruder alarms that could make an air-horn jealous.

Congratulations! Vegas sportsbooks would put the odds squarely in your favor over the bad guys. You have to think of perimeter security like layers of an onion and make smart use all theft deterrent solutions like alarms, cameras and monitoring that are integrated to protect your high-value items and equipment.

Your slogan should be something like, “we’re always watching.” Because the harder you make it to steal from you by implementing multiple layers of deterrence and detection, the easier you’ll sleep.


03_No. 9DAY 9 | Tip 9:
Protect your data like you protect your merchandise.
Cybersecure me.

Ever wonder if the colorful cast of the criminal underworld includes geeks? Of course, it does. Smart thieves go after the physical goods in your warehouse; the smarter ones target your important computer data. That’s what nerd burglars are all about: getting your information.

After all, what’s easier to hide in your trench coat, a flash drive full of confidential files or a semi-truck full of flat-screen TVs?

So, treat your computers and servers like every other physical asset and lock them up.


DAY 10 | Tip 10:
Your garbage could be an unwitting accomplice.
Help me clean up.


Your garbage could be an unwitting accomplice. Security people have a love/hate relationship with trash receptacles: a business can’t do business without taking out the trash regularly, but on the flip side, garbage cans and dumpsters serve as ideal hiding places for burglars. Also, your more unscrupulous employees tend to use them as temporary storage for items they’ve stolen in broad daylight.

So, again, don’t make things easy for people who try to steal from you. Keep garbage cans and dumpsters far away from doors and windows. The extra 15 feet it takes to dispose of your refuge could save you thousands of dollars in lost inventory.


DAY 11 | Tip 11:
Beware of roof-repelling robbers.
Drop it on me. 


Beware of roof-repelling robbers.  Doors and windows aren’t the only way criminals gain entry to your building. While it’s unlikely a cadre of cat burglars will ever pull a Seal-Team-Six style of operation on your property (we can thank Hollywood for that one), some thieves will attempt to enter from the roof to avoid tripping contact-based alarms.

Here’s the good news… ceiling ingress rarely ends well for the bad guys and is easy to protect against (and you won’t need a fancy laser-detection net to do it). Simply conduct regular roof-top inspections and pay attention to any meddling of skylights and HVAC equipment up there.


DAY 12 | Tip 12:
Advertise and exaggerate the difficulty in robbing your place.
Bluff the burglars and lie to me.

Advertise and exaggerate the difficulty in robbing your place. When it comes to security signage, truth in advertising laws do not apply.

Simply put: the more ominous the better.

So, get ready to tell (or bluff) your biggest humdingers for the sake of law and order. For example, you could install signs on your property that read, “Keep Out! Beware of the dogs.”  Burglars don’t like dogs; they’re cat’ people, we suppose, and they tend to shy away from work prospects that include being on the business end of a Doberman. 

Our point here is that when it comes to security signage, truth in advertising laws do not apply and while it may seem like a good idea, the ‘Keep Out’ message isn’t an effective method for keeping the bad guys off your commercial property.  

_____________________________

With this last tip, we conclude our ’12 Days of Holiday Security’ series.
Let’s recap, shall we?

12 shockingly simple ways to protect your commercial/industrial property:

#1. Lurkers at your fence could be burglars doing their homework.
#2. Thieves prefer the dark.
#3. Get creative with your theft deterrence.
#4. Prepare for the ‘inside job’ scenario.
#5. False alarms might not be false.
#6. ‘X’ marks the spot for thieves, too.
#7. Getting prank calls could mean you’re already getting robbed.
#8. Plan your theft deterrence in layers.
#9. Protect your data like you protect your merchandise.
#10 Your garbage could be an unwitting accomplice.
#11. Beware of roof-repelling robbers.
#12. Advertise and exaggerate the difficulty in robbing your place.


Are you enjoying the helpful tips?
Friend AMAROK on social media, and come back tomorrow for the next handy tip in our holiday security series.


Our Gift to You – A FREE, Risk Assessment: To prevent theft on your property, be sure to give our team a call by phone at (800) 432-6391 to receive support. AMAROK is an organization that specializes in perimeter security. We offer business security solutions such as electric security fences, alarms, and video surveillance.

Kerry Gibson