Restaurants Deal with Sudden Surge in Crime
By Tom Maicon at February 18, 2009 | 11:33 am | Print
Atlanta – The restaurant and bar community was shaken by the senseless slaying of 27 year-old John Henderson, bartender at Standard Food & Spirits, who was shot and killed during a robbery on January 7 of this year — after complying with robbers’ demands. The Grant Park community gathered for a vigil outside the popular neighborhood eatery to pay respects and morn their loss.
“Crime is on the rise,” says Carmen Cappello owner-chef of now defunct Lamplighter, located just a few blocks away from Standard Food & Spirits.
Cappello is also a victim of the recent surge in crime. He claims his restaurant was robbed of its flat screen televisions, petty cash, and booze on Christmas Day. Lamplighter was to re-open the following week as — brace yourself — a scrapple burger joint called SHAME Burger, but according to a post on the Atlanta Cuisine discussion board made by chef Cappello himself, the restaurant’s re-open has been delayed indefinitely.
“The decision had to be made and was based mainly on the rash of criminal activity over the course of the last several months in the immediate Grant Park area,” stated Cappello in his post. “It was deemed impossible to re-open due to the heavy burden placed on the financial position of the company.”
Flat screen televisions like the ones lifted from Lamplighter seem to be all the rage among thieves these days. Recently, Los Cabos on Cobb Parkway lost six 50-inch flat screens to overnight burglars while Hooters, just 2 miles away, had ten stolen the same night.
Kayson’s Bar & Grill on Highland Parkway in Smyrna was brazenly burglarized three times in as many weeks. Flat screen televisions were the main target in each robbery.
And Kayson’s isn’t the only restaurant to be victimized more than once. Late last year Taco Stand on Roswell Road in Buckhead was hit three times in a three-month span. Each time burglars cleaned the walls of all twelve flat screens setting back the popular Athens-based Mexican eatery a whopping thirty-six televisions.
“It’s a crime of opportunity,” argues chef-proprietor Gregg Herndon of Redfish, which is located in Grant Park. “In many of these cases there is just a breakable sheet a glass between the robber and a flat screen television.”
With flat screens being the en vogue “smash and grab” item, how can restaurant and bar owners protect their property from would-be thieves and still maintain their attractive ambiance?
It appears the answer is better security systems.
“We’ve definitely seen a spike in business since December,” says Steve Gatt, a local Westec Intelligent Surveillance sales representative. Westec is a Texas based company that now offers cutting edge interactive surveillance technology to a wide range of businesses including restaurants and bars.
“This technology is new and very powerful,” claims Gatt. Speaking of the company’s latest crime fighting tool, which marries the alarm system to their monitoring services.
Basically, when an alarm goes off or a panic button is pushed a Westec surveillance representative sitting in a monitoring room immediately picks up live video feed from the business. If he or she sees someone acting suspicious they quickly dispatch police and even have the ability to verbally communicate with the intruder through the camera’s microphone — often scaring the suspect away.
When a company like Westec calls police about an incident it is considered an eyewitness account due to their use of live video cameras. The average national response time to an ordinary alarm is approximately 47 minutes, while the average national response time to an eyewitness phone call is about 6 minutes.
Westec’s service goes as far to watch over the premises while employees lock up at closing and continues into the parking lot.
Surveillance like this could help reduce and even prevent future injury and/or death during after hour robbery attempts. And maybe even help owners to save a flat screen television or two.
I recommend you visit the Westec website (http://www.westec.net) even if you aren’t in the market for a surveillance system. The compelling video that casts real accounts on the front page is entertainment enough, especially the part where a Westec representative voices through the camera to a passed out homeless man sleeping in a booth of a White Castle restaurant — warning him to move on or be arrested.
“Yeah, we plan to update that video every month or so with new accounts,” laughs Gatt.
COMMENTS