How do you begin to handle 127 armed Robberies and $1 Million in Losses?

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Tony Gallo, Senior Director of Sapphire Protection, tells his story.

“In 2008, I was the Director of Loss Prevention and Safety for a major chain of pawn stores in North America. This company experienced 127 armed robberies that year totaling more than $1 million in losses throughout the company’s 1000+ North American locations.

A large percentage of the robberies involved the loss of jewelry loans and cash from safes, which were usually located in the manager’s office. In 18 of these 127 robberies, either an employee or customer was injured during the robbery. One robbery resulted in a fatality.

From 2003-2008, the company was averaging over $1 million in robbery losses per year, and the percentage of violent robberies was increasing.

Several options were presented to reduce the number of robberies, but most were neither practical nor cost efficient. Some examples included hiring armed guards or hiding jewelry loans throughout the store. It costs a lot of money to maintain armed guards week-in and week-out and having them could increase the level of violence at a store. Hiding jewelry loans throughout the store isn’t practical and violates insurance underwriting rules.

We developed and implemented a comprehensive robbery prevention program that included PawnSystems. We found an insert that would fit inside a thirty minute or more, tool resistant rated safe. The insert had 35, 24-inch long drawers for jewelry and cash storage. Only one drawer could be opened at a time, and there was a time delay before the next drawer could be opened.”

Investing in a PawnSystem reduces the risk of armed robberies by utilizing the time delay to your advantage. Wait time for the armed robber keeps them bay because they simply do not wait the time for the drawer to open. It increases their chances of getting caught! Increasing the time for an armed robber is what ultimately discouraged them from theft at our stores.

By Tony Gallo, Senior Director on Sapphire Protection.