I HATE THIEVES

Wearing a mask, wearing gloves, not wearing anything but plain gray dirty t-shirt.  Did a lot of damage to an overhead door and stole things, but the video didn't help. 

Legally we can't put guard dogs in our facility to run loose and actually protect the building as we could get charged with many different things according to the local police, even if they broke into our building.  And the owners of the company will not allow me to hire anyone to be guards on our property.  They hoped the cameras would fix the problem. 

Odd.  A couple more employees on the payroll seem like a small price to pay for reduced downtime, insurance costs, and so on.

I agree about the dogs -- and they're not that effective anyhow unless they have a handler.  Determined burglars will just pepper spray them or worse.

Small family run business and I have not been able to change their minds.

Not my family, or we would have people and policies in place.  We have had a lot of suggestions from employees, but none of them would be anything we could actually do.

Well, keep your hopes up -- the police might track them down anyhow.  Those guys have to sell the copper somewhere, and in areas with a meth problem, the police usually have the scrap yards covered.  Still sucks to deal with but I'm glad no one was hurt.

It strikes me as odd the owners of the business are so slow to react to protect their property.

If it weren't for the expensive damage to the facility I'd almost wonder if it weren't an inside job...I.E., getting insurance claims on top of the value of what they stole from themselves..OR someone on the inside knows the limits to which the family will go (or not go) to address the problem.

How secure do you feel in this facility during normal work hours and especially off-business hours?  I'm not assuming a meth head will wait patiently until the middle of the night to steal in order to buy more drugs..

LOL .. That would be hilarious to see.. first the shoes .. then the socks then robber in bare feet. 

That was my first thought.  I know it's sad, and I have nothing to base my first reaction on...but I can't deny thinking it. 

If it wasn't and inside job, then it's still one of those things that the owner needs to be responsible for.

Like the saying goes..."fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

No....it's "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.......uh........you can't get fooled again"

By looking at the video, it is not an employee, and this person didn't know where to go to find things as they were going into bathrooms trying to find things.  But they read the signs that said we had video cameras, because of the mask covering all of the face.  No markings (tats) on the arms that were not covered, so no easy way to identify.  Just another wonderful druggie stealing tools to pawn or trade for drugs.

Do you have a security system with a horn or similar alarm?

I know it still takes 10-20 minutes (I'm an optimist!) before the police would arrive, but it may be a deterrant.

My alarm system is only about $300/year.

I still stress about it and try to fix things as best I can with what little budget I have.  That is my work ethic.  That is why I put in long hours and try to make things better daily.  Trying to turn a company around is very difficult, but slowly (VERY SLOWLY) doing so.

Good for you. I would guess you also care about all those employees under you. A break in can effect their ability to work as well if equipment is broken and re-agents are missing etc. since it is hard to do your job if the tools don't work and it is not right to pay an employee to sit around looking at broken equipment.

Thieves stink!

If you sell bicycles, I think this is your crook

And I hate thieves also.  Very frustrating to show up for work and find

youve been broken into.  I hope yins figure out a way to stop it.

@ swim2live - I don't sell bikes, but would love to have those bike for some of the art work I am trying to do, and some I would like to fix back up and give to some of the needy in the area.  I just fixed up an old Nishiki that was donated and it is being well used.  I have already had it back to true the wheels, but it feels good helping some people out that appreciate it.

@ ttuna - We have some cameras in place, but the job is not complete.   And we are putting up the signs.  I am also going to have an ex-theif come look at the building and tell me how he would break in and then fix those things as best I can with the money I have avaialble to me.