Hello All-
I have to add a little more to this thread, as this topic is
directly related to security, and protection of your valuables, with
which I have some experience.
In April 2001, my business was burglarized. They took the safe. The
whole thing. It was a good safe, TRTL30, fairly large, on the second
floor, no elevator, completely alarmed, with a seperate alarm on the
safe. My business is wholesale, and the company name does not say
jewelry, and was not even on the building directory. I thought I was
invisible, and safe. And of course, I put everything I cared about,
including an irreplacable 25 year stone collection, in the safe.
I made one BIG mistake. I did not upgrade my security system when
new technology was available, and I had no back up system. Most
alarm systems use the telephone line to send the signal to the
monitoring station. If you have a seperate system for your safe, you
just have another phone line, or they will use the same line to send
the signal. What the thieves do is cut the phone line, and then wait
to see if the police show up. If they don’t, they go in. The alarm
company does not know the line has been cut. The alarm will still
sound on the premises when they break in, but no signal is sent, and
then they cut all the wires and destroy the bell, and alarm box. In
my case, they had 4 hours to ransack my shop, and when they could
not get into my safe, they just pushed it down the stairs, and
finally broke it open on thier way to Mexico. Even if the police show
up, they will not find anything wrong, think it is a false alarm,
and then leave. The crooks are watching, and then keep tripping the
alarm until no one shows up. Very simple.
What you need to do, and don’t wait, DO IT NOW, is get a RADIO or
CELL back up. A RADIO Back Up is best, because it constantly sends a
signal to the station. If the power goes off, they know about it.
They can cut all the wires they want, and you will still have an
active system. You just have to make sure that monitoring station
calls the police every time. And then make sure the police show up
every time.
At the time, I thought it was the end of life as I knew it. But the
blessings were many. They only got stuff, I had insurance, and my
wife talked me into going over some friends house that night,
otherwise I would have been working.
Please do not kid yourself. It does not matter how many safes you
have, or how many alarm systems you have. If you get a safe for
jewelry, make sure it is at least a TRTL30, and get a RADIO back up
for your alarm system, TODAY!
Be well, and be SAFE.
Stuart J. Adelman, Designer
Artelle Designs
President, Contemporary Design Group 2002-2004
artelle07@aol.com
763.559.0044