“What’s funny is, it’s an area that you wouldn’t expect to have crime and vandalism and stuff like that. It’s a nice area.” — Angela Manca, Property Manager at Vestar
Sometimes, problems happen in the places you’d least expect. For Vestar, a property management company with outdoor shopping centers throughout Arizona’s East Valley, crime was never something they had to think much about. Then things changed.
After going years without incidents, one of Vestar’s properties began to experience break-ins. They had never had the need for security before, but now that was changing.
So, they contacted us and we installed a video surveillance system with remote guard services. It eliminated their break-in problem and offered a few unexpected benefits for Vestar and their tenants.
Adapting to New Threats
In early 2019, Angela Manca, a property manager with Vestar, began to receive complaints from tenants at one of her properties. Some tenants had noticed attempts at break-ins, and one had actually been robbed.
Up until that point, Manca and Vestar hadn’t budgeted for security at the site. Crime wasn’t a concern because the area was fairly affluent and safe. It didn’t make sense for them to spend money on an on-site security guard to prevent problems that weren’t occurring.
Plus, as Manca says, they didn’t think on-site security was a particularly useful option. “A lot of times, if you have one officer patrolling a property, they’re not effective because they can’t be everywhere.”
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Secluded Areas Lead to Mischief
The property that Manca had trouble with had four entrances. Two of them led to the front of the shopping center, which was easily visible from a distance and the road. But, the other two led to the back of the property, where the building concealed activity from people and vehicles. It was here that the break-ins took place.
Fortunately, Manca had attended a lunch-and-learn session hosted by Vestar to connect property managers with industry vendors, including security professionals. She had talked with us about our options and kept us in mind should her security needs change. When the break-ins started happening, she gave us a call.
Affordable, Effective Crime Prevention
After talking with Manca about the incidents she was experiencing, we recommended and installed video surveillance cameras equipped with analytic capabilities that created an alert any time a person or a vehicle entered the property after hours.
When an intrusion was detected, a notice was immediately sent to remote guards who could talk down the perpetrator and coerce them into leaving the scene, before the crime took place.
Since their installation, Manca and her tenants haven’t had a single incidence of an attempted break-in or burglary. But that doesn’t mean the threats aren’t there.
“I’ll get a daily report and see that the remote guards use talk down at least four times a week to get people to leave,” says Manca. “I didn’t realize people were on my property this late at night.”
In addition to preventing future crimes from happening, they’re seeing other benefits too. When a tenant noticed damage to their back door, a quick call to us for footage review revealed that a delivery truck from another tenant had backed into it.
With clear video footage of the incident, Manca was able to help the tenants resolve the issue quickly.
Video surveillance with remote guard services provided Manca with the affordable, effective crime prevention solution she needed. Plus, it opened her eyes to a host of additional benefits during daytime hours, like settling property damage disputes between tenants.
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Want to find out what other benefits you can access from a video surveillance system on your property? Check out our white paper, Comparing Security Options For Your Business.
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