Have you noticed how this type of museum theft incident is picking up?  Museum Security is usually lax and the effort by authorities to catch the smaller thefts will be minimal.  Most investigations are triggered by the insurers who don’t want to stand for the loss.  But in these smaller thefts, they lack insurance and the police will investigate this for about five minutes.

I was involved in a theft where I had about $3,000 worth of material stolen and when the police show up and you are all set for the man hunt and they give you an investigators form to use with your insurer and then they walk away.  I was shocked “Hey, where’s the fingerprint guy?”  “Aren’t you going to ask questions to see if anybody saw anything?”  They laughed and got back in their car.

In this economy, people look for the easy mark.  Don’t be the easy mark!  Museums are an easy target as they seldom vault anything. Their security systems are not typically high quality.

Our vault sales have changed recently due to the type of client that now has an interest in protecting their assets. Individuals and institutions are starting to take the security on themselves. Gun sales are high and increasing monthly.  But homes were never designed to be defensible. So home invasions are on the rise. Society is breaking down as it is a short step from having the government giving you other people’s earning to just taking them as the issue of who is entitled to material wealth is changing.

This is changing the world for those of us selling security products such as vaults, safes and alarms. In the past people depended on the authorities to respond and protect their home and values.  Now people with wealth see a need to protect their own homes. In this type of world, museums and archives that possess things of value will see a continuing increase in break-ins and even internal theft. Barry Landau does not fit the past criminal description of a sneak thief but he is a role model for the current day thief.

As people begin to fear currency devaluation, theft of jewelry, coin collections, guns and computers will be the target. These are found in abundance in homes and museums. The more newspaper articles that appear the fast the increase as other criminals with less imagination see a new opportunity. Thomas Crown meets smash and grab.


Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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