Thieves in $1 million heist circumvent video surveillance system

An unfortunate occurence for a local Southern California business located in El Monte California as reported in the July 9th edition of the Los Angeles Times.  The complete article and a link to the online version is posted below.

What is particularly troubling is that this could have been prevented.  Most businesses fail to plan for these types of intrusions sometimes due to budgets, and sometimes due to an attitude of "it won't happen to me".  In these cases, they can plan to fail as this company did.  This is especially heinous  given the type of business and the value of assets on hand.  Proper measures could have been taken to preserve video images and/ or to properly secure the recording device(s) in order to aid authorities in identifying the perpretrators.

Here's the article:

The robbers who broke through the roof and stole perhaps more than $1 million from an armored car business in South El Monte managed to avoid being videotaped during the heist, law enforcement sources say.

Lt. Kent Wegener of the County Sheriff's Major Crimes Bureau said the company had security cameras inside. But sources familiar with the investigation said the robbers may have accessed the equipment and removed any record of their presence.

"At this point, we don't have any description," Wegener said.

Officials are still trying to tabulate the losses and determine exactly how much cash -- likely small bills destine for ATMS, was taken.

About 7:30 p.m. Thursday, three robbers peeled back the roof of the Commonwealth International building in the 12300 block of Barringer Street. The company, owned and operated by current and former law enforcement officers, handles cash for hundreds of automated teller machines across the L.A. region.

Wegener said they dropped down a rope and wove their way through a complex of vaults and safe rooms inside the building. They first jumped a manager, blindfolding him and binding his hands, Wegener said. They forced the manager to summon two other employees, who were also blindfolded and bound. The robbers took about 20 minutes dragging cash from the main vault out a side exit to a car, Wegener said.

Richard Winton LA Times July 9, 2011

Thieves in $1-million heist circumvented video surveillance system

Campbell Wright, CPP is the owner and operator of SoCal Access and Video

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