Crime prevention

Over the past weekend a sneaky criminal broke into a storage container we have on site. Fortunately, we do not store anything of high value. We use it primarily to store wooden shipping pallets for when we sent goods to our distributors overseas. But nonetheless it is a nuisance. The criminal wanted to see what was inside the boxes so they cut open many of them and in the process made a mess.

In this case we had three locks on the container including one that is inside a welded metal box which is supposed to make it difficult for thieves to use bolt cutters. I can only imagine that this individual had a special set of right angle bolt cutters that could navigate the security box. For now I only hope that this burgular now knows there is nothing of value in this container so they will not return.

The lesson for today was that the police do want victims to report all crimes. At first I thought I would just get over it and move on but after talking to my landlord he mentioned that I should report the crime. By the end of the day when I had some spare time I called the RCMP and to my surprise they even sent an officer to my location. I chatted with the officer and she mentioned that they will in fact increase patrols and make a note to check on our specific location. Wow, I was surprised. She also told me that in fact these reports do help them in apprehending these criminals as the statistics and patterns do emerge with more data.

As for what we can do to prevent property crimes:
- increase visibility add lights
- we are working with the landlord to and cameras
- do not become complacent