Security Horror Stories

I have just spent half a day in a wonderfull house in on the outskirts of Bolton after a frantic call from the owners saying they had been broken in to and could I call round and repair their alarm because the intruders had smashed the keypad and ripped the internal internal sounder of the ceiling no problem I said I will be there within the hour ) On arrival I was greeted by the owners offered a brew and given the manual and service record, quick glance through seemed normal. Where is the end station I asked, Its in the garage attic, Up the ladder I went then the problems started, only 4 feet of roof space (me being 6ft 2 and 16 stone) but there where crawling boards…

Many moons ago a good friend of mine asked me if he could come out to work with me as he was ega to be in our trade. He had experience in fitting satellite tv so i thought id give him a chance. He wanted to install a camera on his parents house, a detatched bunglow. They didnt want an additional monitor so i told them i could modulate the signal onto a spare channel on there own tv and vcr. No problems there. I got up on to the roof, which was completely flat (bonus!!), to fix the camera to the chimney breast and told my friend (you know who you are!!) to drill the hole for the coax, so it could be run up the side of the house. Without looking what was on the other side …

Many moons ago I worked in an old town house in Edinburgh and when I was drilling the door for a button MC I drilled 20mm into what I thought was the door frame only to have the drill & bit to be "pushed" from my hand. It would appear that a new water tank was fitted in the past and because it was a bit big the plumber must have got a joiner to drop the hight of the door. I must admit he did a great job of moving the 9 inch door facing and because there was a 2 inch viod the plumber popped the old lead water mains pipe behind the facing. And about 10 years later an idiot of an alarm engineer (yes that was me) got a right good soaking. aye these were the days

We recently installed a cctv system in a very up market bathroom design shop. They had four black and white cameras on the shop floor and two observation monitors - one ceiling mounted near the entrance showing the pictures from the camera on the entrance doors. This meant that as customers walked in they could see themselves on the monitor. The other monitor was mounted near the reception area where customers paid for their very expensive new bathrooms. The day after installation the manager phoned me in very hushed tones to say there was an embarrassing problem with the cameras. I coaxed out of him that if any of the female shop assistants were wearing black unde…

Friends new 4 bed detached , moving in day , carpets are going down, sat tv going in, removals arrived and me trying to fit alarm .The plumbers have fitted some nice inspection covers upstairs for access to the pipes , which I utilise for my drops ,Each cover has 6 screws , and as the carpet fitter is waiting impatiently for me, I come to screw the last one down , but there are only 5 screws , I get myself another screw , wiz it in , and the carpet goes on top .As I stand in the hallway programming the system , my eye is drawn to a small patch on the ceiling

I was working in an old Victorian House, drilling very gingerly through the wall into a cupboard the other side, and being very aware of a live lead gas pipe on the other side too. I knew that I was nearly through the wall, and having felt the drill (what I thought anyway...) go back into the lathe and plaster wall and out again, I stopped drilling. I couldnt understand what the gushing noise was - yep! I hit the gas pipe! P A N I C Where's the stop tap? Customer didn't know. On the verge of calling the Fire Service and evacuating when I found it hidden in the bottom of the same cupboard. It sounded like gushing water, …

1 of my engineers went to a business today to reset after the sub messed up on the way in. When the engineer arrived the customer said that he was going to have a shower and to carry on. Well, my engineer noticed that the inspection was due at the same time so proceed. (killing 2 birds with one hit). About 1/2 hour later the customer returned and ask hows it going. My engineer turned round to see the customer (MALE) naked. . He said to me that he is NOT going to return back there again. WHAT HE DOESN'T KNOW IS "IM THE BOSS" AND HE WILL GO WHERE I SEND HIM.

Not quite security related but I'll tell anyway. A few years ago when I was a keen thrusting young Bobby serving in a nice county force, myself and a colleague were called to an old lady's house, as she hadn't been heard of for some time. After completing the obligatory knocking on the door shouting through the letterbox etc we 'effected entry' a posh word for smashing the window. We found the old lady upstairs lying naked under a double wardrobe which had obviously fallen on her. The top half of her body was hidden under the wardrobe, her bottom half was exposed for the world to see. My mate says not a bad muff that for an old un. The next thing we hear is never mi…

every callout eng. nightmare one monday night had callout to a farm house in north wales the customer complained that the system had activated many times during the night (it's now 2am) when i arrive its pitch black all i can hear is a dog barking. next a man knocks on window . err yes asks if im eng. and takes me inside to the panel which is inside a double fitted wardrobe. theres nothing in the log but he's convinced it actvated he asked me to disconect till morning so they can get some sleep. i down power and link the hold off to the battery. and book an apointment to revisit later that day . the next thing i know is they cancell the visit for a week.then on th…