Retail Store Staff Ignores Intrusion Alarm, Gets Robbed
When employees of retail store Lord & Taylor in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., arrived at work on Jan. 19, they were in for a shock. Why? Because earlier that morning the shop had been burglarized, despite the fact multiple security alarms were set off and the store summarily contacted by monitoring center personnel.
During the incident, as reported by Narberth-BalaCynwydPatch.com, a team of intruders forced their way into the store before 5:45 a.m., broke into display cases and made off with merchandise. An employee had activated the monitored ADT alarm system the prior night at 10:30 p.m.
I sighed as I read the story … not again. In November I wrote a blog about how a similar incident at a Walgreens in Wauwatosa, Wis., allowed the intruder to get away with the crime. However, in this case, ADT actually alerted the store after an alarm was triggered in one area at 5:49 a.m., then in several other areas at 5:58 a.m. Both times, a security worker told ADT to disregard the alarms because they believed the alarms were false due to the store’s recent renovation.
Police later reviewed the video surveillance footage only to discover the suspects were able to make five trips from the store to their vehicle with the stolen merchandise. Yikes!
ADT’s central station personnel did what they were supposed to do during this incident by contacting the customer and alerting them to the alarm signals. However, this story, again, stresses the importance of communicating and training customers, especially when more and more police agencies are implementing nonresponse policies. When your clients renovate their facilities, how is your company training them to handle intrusion alarms?
Ashley Willis | Associate Editor
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