When most of us think of a panic or safe room we immediately think about a safe and secure place for people to head in the event of a burglary, kidnap attempt or even a terrorist attack. A panic room undoubtedly offers unrivalled safety and security for people, but they can also be used to safeguard valuable property in a commercial as well as residential environment.
Explains Paul Weldon, managing director at The Panic Room Company: “Not only are panic rooms highly effective at protecting people they are also an ideal place to store high value items within a commercial environment.
“A prime example of this is a safe room that we installed inside the offices of a local building contractor last year. The business owner wanted to somewhere highly secure to keep a variety of expensive equipment and kit used by his site teams. One of our safe rooms offered the perfect solution.
“We’re all familiar with the signs on the back of commercial vehicles stating: ‘no tools left in this vehicle overnight’. And sadly, we’ve all heard of or know someone affected by the daily news stories of thieves breaking into vans, business premises and building site compounds to steal valuable tools and other equipment.
“A commercial break-in and theft of this nature not only leaves the business without the essential tools it needs to complete client projects, it also leads to costly financial implications such as investment to replace stolen items, increased insurance premiums and, very often, having to make people redundant as a result of lost work and consequent ‘down time’.
“This exact scenario recently became a reality for the company that purchased that safe room from us last year. When the owner arrived at work on Monday morning he discovered that his site had been broken into over the weekend and thousands of pounds worth of cabling, equipment and tools had been taken. Fortunately, he had locked the most expensive pieces of equipment in the safe room and that remained unscathed. The thieves had tried to gain access but without success – aside from a few scratches on the door, the room did the exact job it was there to do.”
Concludes Paul: “We can’t legislate for those in society who choose to steal from others; they don’t care about the devastating effects their actions have. What we can legislate for, however, is remaining one step ahead of them wherever we can. Installing a safe room in a commercial environment is always going to be a sound investment, a cost-effective means of getting ahead and an added insurance policy that will thwart thieves every single time.”
