Office break in :(

[MrLizard]

Hi, after a bit of non biased advice, MrsLizard and I rent an office in Coventry (first mistake) and Sunday night it was broken into, this is a managed office with about 30 or so businesses in there.

The Irish travelling people decided to smash every door and window they could find - scum

Anyway, there is no security guard and the cctv is pretty poor, only one camera would have caught them and that was conveniently off - quite happy with the police response as they were there in minutes with forensics, the only issue being the first person on the scene at 6am was the cleaner and he decided cleaning the evidence was a better use of his time...ffs

I don't want to make a knee jerk reaction but I don't work in the office its just the Mrs and two other young girls who sometimes work late and weekends, our contract is up at the end of this month

Should we move or stay - insisting on improvements, the office is saying they will make some improvements (though I don't know what)

Are we likely to suffer this wherever we go? Could we do something to our office specifically within the building to act as a deterrent?

Ta
MrL

[MrLizard]

Troubleatmill said:

You need high definition cameras - very fast broadband and offsite storage ( Internet )
Or they will nick the recording devices )

A monitored alarm system with police response would be nice too.

Smart water deployed throughout the building.

etc etc



BTW - Once you have been targeted - they will target you again - because the insurance forks up for new shiny stuff.

Interesting you say this, the police have said the same - also it turns out they didn't kick the doors in, realising they are all passcode protected fire doors they brought a sledge hammer

One of them cut themselves very badly on the tempered glass and has lost a lot of blood and left a few finger prints 'apparently' - this is just from building management

I am leaning to moving on, double the cost but a nice looking place near Sainsbury on A45

[MrLizard]

Lol no not the cleaner - though had it been I suspect he wouldn't of said anything and would have just carried on to his last breath

[MrLizard]

well for the sake of accuracy, the office did get broken into again

this made the decision for us, we have found somewhere else but the place we are at is making our lives hard trying to break the contract.

fkin scum

[MrLizard]

don't know this time, it was a bit more organised though they broke in the same day the same time exactly one week later, stole all the computer equipment but they got through a door on the second floor without a card pass without breaking in... oddly they then sprayed the entire office with fairy liquid..


grrr, put so much effort in and scum just make it so hard. - couldn't believe the crime stats published on the police site, if you wanted a life of crime you can see where a lot of crime happens and even pin down the arrest and prosecution rates..

[MrLizard]

Yes, bigger business on floor 2, took everything, all pc, monitors even cables, their staff just stood around, no phones or anything =(

[MrLizard]

Forensics did turn up but I don't know whether they found anything the second time round, the first time round they found quite a lot of blood on a broke piece of glass/floor

I'm wondering whether the first time was kids to scope out the place and the second time was associated adults?

First time was smash and grab but more smash - second time was a lot more organised...

Does anyone know if we have grounds to get out of the office contract due to the break in's, it just isn't a safe environment to work at the office 24 hours a day which is something that was sold to us when we moved in - in my mind it isn't fit for purpose any more...

Also we were told (admittedly in passing) the building had not been broke into before - also not true.

[MrLizard]

Thanks soda, will do.

[MrLizard]

soad said:

A fiver says they have moved.

They did and so did we , paying a lot more in rent but we get to keep the things we work so hard for - for a bit longer!