Security & Fraud

Baby device helps catch crooks!

Break-ins to parkades have always been and always will be a problem amongst apartment dwellers. How we deal with these unmonitored areas is up to the individual buildings owners and of course their fiscal budget. 

If you find you cannot afford an elaborate monitoring system for your parkade area and are fed up with low-life's sneaking into your underground parking areas, then it's time to try an inexpensive way to deal with this very common problem.  

It's time to fight back with a baby device. Yes, I said a baby device! One of the best devices to catch the crooks at their own game is a baby monitor. So dig out and dust off your monitors from the past, it's time to get serious on crime!

Baby monitors have the capability of providing superior clarity over a long range. Many are 900 MHz technology which is found in the latest telephones. This simply means they have less static and interference which makes it easier to hear the quietest sounds clearly from 400 feet away. 

Imagine being able to listen to a burglary in progress from the comfort of your own apartment. That's exactly what you will be able to do when you plug the transmitter (recorder) portion of the monitor in an electrical outlet hidden in a locked mechanical room in your building parkade.  

When an intruder makes his or her move, you will quickly recognize the sounds of a break-in in progress. Breaking glass, doors slamming, screwdrivers against metal, hurried conversation etc. Once you have determined a break-in is in progress, it time to alert the police by calling 911.

Please remember it's very important not to go down and investigate a violation. Number one, you might get hurt and number two, you run the risk of scaring the perpetrators away. Leave the apprehending to the local police, they are the professionals.

Now I know many of you are reading this and thinking, "Who's going to monitor the system?" I would recommend asking the person who has had their vehicle targeted by vandals two or three times. Or maybe your neighbor who has contemplated moving because of the constant barrage of thieves in the parkade area.

How about the person who is fed up with dealing with insurance companies and automotive body shops. Or maybe the resident who has had their vehicle stolen from the parkade recently, only to receive the news their vehicle has been written off. Another candidate might be the resident who had all his power tools stolen from his secured locker. 

Fighting the cause with a cure works every time. If you don't address the cause by taking action on targeted areas, your building runs the risk of being branded as "easy pickins" in the burglar world. Once word gets out on the street your building is an easy target, you could be in for a rash of break-ins.

So don't let parkade break-ins create a problem for your apartment building. Purchase a baby monitor and let technology take over your parkade area. If you've been elected to do the monitoring, just sit back and listen for unusual activity taking place at weird hours of the morning, pick up the phone and you're guaranteed to spoil a thief's day!

Please check out my new Web site at www.yourhomesecurity.ca or e-mail me at . Columns 2006 2005 2004