In the last 2 months I’ve gotten countless calls from car wash owners who have been victims of a break-in. It’s not a matter of if you’re going to have a break-in, its matter when you’re going to have a break-in. There are a few things that you can do to help prevent this from happening. Install a monitored Alarm system in the equipment room, a motion sensor in the attic is also a good idea, I’ve seen the thieves cut open the roof, alarm every piece of equipment you have and put stickers on the equipment. Install a high grade video surveillance system, this will help identify any of the bad guys and will help protect you from any unnecessary damage claims. Put signs up stating that you’re on video. Lighting, make your car wash as bright at night as possible, I had customer who turned off there lights at 10 pm because they didn’t do much business after 10 pm, he’s been broken into twice in the last 3 months. If they get past your alarm system and into the equipment room, don’t lock your Bill Charger, if they get into the equipment room they’ll destroy the Bill Changer to get at the money. The bill changer costs more than the money that’s inside it so why lock it. Keys, don’t leave your keys in the equipment room, if your broken into they will more than likely find your keys, keep them in a safe place that’s not at the car wash and don’t keep the second set of keys with the everyday keys. Money pick up the money often, we pick up the money every morning. I know this seems like a lot of extra work but you have to protect yourself. We never leave any cash in the equipment room, this is an invitation for a huge loss. I have a customer who picked up his money on Monday mornings, he was broken into on a Sunday night, they hit the mother lode so they came back the next Sunday and hit it again. Tokens are a good way of preventing break-ins but they are not 100% fool proof. One of the car washes here was hit and they lost a couple hundred tokens, they used the tokens to buy vending items and sold a lot of tokens for 2 for a dollar. Don’t be fooled because the police station is just down the street. The last time my wash was broken into it was 10am with customers there and it took the police 18 minutes to get there, so it can happen at just about any time of the day or night. These tips are just a little food for thought.
Self-Serve Car Wash Security
- Thread starter Randy
- Start date
Uncle Sam
Member
Good post, Randy; everything you say has or is happening every day. I am just amazed that operators leave the keys to all the locks in the wash including the vendor in the equipment room. I have replaced many sets of locks where the keys were stolen with new locks and keys for the high security vending machine. It is more common now than I have seen in the last 25 years. Don't depend on technology to keep thieves out and, by all means, do not depend on the police to help you. Property crimes are very low on their priority list.
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam
Earl Weiss
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Count me among those learning the hard lesson at my tunnel. Had spare Keys in what I thought was a secure lockup in what I thought was a good burglar alarm. Alarm was defeated. they waited an hour to make sure and then spent an hour getting in to most everything. They did not get in to vendors because they did not have time. Still had to spend thousands changing out locks.
soapy
Senior Member
robert roman
Bob Roman
“In the last 2 months I’ve gotten countless calls from car wash owners who have been victims of a break-in.”
“….turned off…lights at 10 pm ….he’s been broken into twice in the last 3 months.”
“…..customer…picked up his money on Monday mornings…broken into on a Sunday night….they came back the next Sunday and hit it again.”
As Ron White would say, you can’t fix stupid but I would add you can fix the carwash.
According to the models self-service equipment manufacturers use to help operators evaluate new locations, poor local business factors alone (i.e. high incident of crime, less than desirable businesses) can drop the overall location rating from good range to not recommended.
There are some of the tactics we recommend to ensure security at unattended wash that suffers from break-ins, drug deals, etc.
Steel mesh security fence (anti-cut and climb) with lockable gates
Close at dark, take “all” the money out
High quality surveillance cameras, night-time security lights
Day attendant, 40 to 50 hours a week
Anyone dumb enough to try and circumvent this will get caught for nothing.
“….turned off…lights at 10 pm ….he’s been broken into twice in the last 3 months.”
“…..customer…picked up his money on Monday mornings…broken into on a Sunday night….they came back the next Sunday and hit it again.”
As Ron White would say, you can’t fix stupid but I would add you can fix the carwash.
According to the models self-service equipment manufacturers use to help operators evaluate new locations, poor local business factors alone (i.e. high incident of crime, less than desirable businesses) can drop the overall location rating from good range to not recommended.
There are some of the tactics we recommend to ensure security at unattended wash that suffers from break-ins, drug deals, etc.
Steel mesh security fence (anti-cut and climb) with lockable gates
Close at dark, take “all” the money out
High quality surveillance cameras, night-time security lights
Day attendant, 40 to 50 hours a week
Anyone dumb enough to try and circumvent this will get caught for nothing.
One thing that some may have overlooked is to not take the money out or deposit it at the same time everyday so that your routine cannot be tracked. While some crooks just want to smash and grab there are those out their that watch every move and act when you least expect it.
MEP001
Well-known member
Yup, and whenever possible don't have money out when you're there by yourself. A friend's 65 year old mother was at his wash alone and some thugs asked her for some money, and when she said no one of them punched her in the face.
DiamondWash
Well-known member
We are upgrading our PC-Based DVR to a standalone 16ch DVR we are looking at getting a DVR with a 1TB hard-drive is that enough? it won't be recording 24/7 but only record when motion is detected. here is the system I'm considering it's $377 without the hard drive and another $100 for a 1TB hard drive included:
http://www.securitycamerasdirect.com/alibi-16-channel-hd-tvi-hybrid-real-time-dvr-ali-hvr5016h
http://www.securitycamerasdirect.com/alibi-16-channel-hd-tvi-hybrid-real-time-dvr-ali-hvr5016h
Do yourself a favor and buy a unit that has at least a 9tb. If you are using 16 hd 1080p cameras at full resolution. 1tb will only be good for maybe 1 or 2 days.
For the extra space, the cost is minimal for all the benefits you will gain.
Randy gives excellent and insightful advice as always. Thanks, Randy.
The one aspect I often think about is how frequently to collect money. I understand the loss exposure is less if you collect frequently, but I don't see how frequent collections deter crime. After all, the criminal can't see into the changer or coin boxes to see if they are full, half-full, or empty?
As one poster wrote, I DO vary the money collection. It's quite randomized. Hopefully that's why I haven't yet run into problems.
The one aspect I often think about is how frequently to collect money. I understand the loss exposure is less if you collect frequently, but I don't see how frequent collections deter crime. After all, the criminal can't see into the changer or coin boxes to see if they are full, half-full, or empty?
As one poster wrote, I DO vary the money collection. It's quite randomized. Hopefully that's why I haven't yet run into problems.
slash007
Well-known member
I think the whole point of frequent collections is so that you lose less if you are robbed, not to deter crime.
MEP001
Well-known member
The amount of data used when recording will depend on the record resolution and the framerate. If you don't plan on using 1080P cameras and you keep it at 15 FPS on motion, it will record a week or more on a 1TB drive.
You can get drives a lot cheaper than what they list for upgrade.
Earl Weiss
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Earl Weiss
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AFAIAC you can never have too much hard drive space. I would spend the extra $200 and get the 4TB.
Cops came yesterday to see if I picked up anything of use for a nearby shooting (I didn't) but they loved the quality.
MEP001
Well-known member
I had to give video to the police once - I had the record quality set to the lowest and felt it was pretty bad, but they thought it was amazing. At least it was good enough to get the guy sent to prison for 26 years.
