7 Tips to Protect your Jewelry Store

19 Jul 7 Tips to Protect your Jewelry Store

Whether you own a jewelry store or help them with their security, it’s important to be up to date on risks to the store. Learn from this recent break in and take a look at our 7 tips to protect your jewelry store.

Reviewing a recent Jewelry Store Burglary

On June 6, 2019, burglars were able to compromise the power and the alarm system at a jewelry business located in West Valley City Utah. They cut power by pulling out the power meter as the breaker boxes were located inside the building.  They then waited out battery backups and used a spreader bar to push out a door frame in order to compromise door locks and enter the building. In this case, the alarm company did not notify the owner of the power failure when the power was cut.

Like the other power cut burglaries, the burglars in this case brought in their own abrasive cutting tools to cut into the safes.  They could cut into the fire safes easily with these tools, and then proceeded to use an oxyacetylene torch(owned by the business) to cut into the burglary rated safes.  In total, they compromised and entered 3 of the 6 safes on site. 1 of the 3 compromised was a TL (tool resistant safe) not a torch resistant safe.  Luckily the majority of the value was in the 3 safes that were un-compromised.  As shown in the pictures below, the two fire safes were easily broken into as they only have thin sheet metal on the inside and outside and a few layers of drywall sandwiched in between.

7 tips to protect your jewelry store and prevent this type of burglary

Here are some things you can do to prevent these kinds of break-ins:

1. Ensure your alarm system provides line security, which is a measure that will trigger an alert when the alarm panel stops communicating with the Central Station
2. Make sure your alarm system has loss of power notifications like alarm.com has so that as soon as the power is cut text and/or email notifications are sent to responsible parties.
3. Respond in person to every alert and alarm trigger, and check power breaker boxes, mains, and meters to ensure they are not compromised.  If they are, plan on staying on site or hiring a guard service until they can be repaired or turned back on.
4. Discontinue use of fire safes in favor of burglary rated safes where possible. It would also be wise to use a TRTL safe where possible.
5. Make sure you have high definition video surveillance. With the right tools, people can break into even the strongest safes. That is why it’s also important to have security cameras as well. For more information on what type of quality is best, see our blog post where we compare the differences here.
6. Consult with your insurance agent who also might have guidance and knowledge
7. Check with Zions Security Alarms for a free quote and analysis of your security system and protection from burglaries. Contact us here.

Additional information

Here is more security information and an explanation of safe ratings which usually display on tags on or around the door of the safe.

Fire safes and gun safes generally rate as Class A, B, C or class 350 (avoid these safes). Look for UL (underwriters laboratories) tags with the following info:

• • • TL means Tool Resistant and tool- generally defined as hand/power tools. This includes chisels, hammers, and powered abrasive cutting tools like grinders with cutting discs.
    • TR means Torch Resistant and means that the safe has flame cutting/plasma cutting resistance.
    • TX means that the safe is explosion resistant.  (Usually very rare and hard to come by as they were only made for a couple of years by some manufactures)
    • A number follows any of the above letters and combination of letters.  That number designates the length of time that a single side, usually the safe door, is resistant to the designated type of attack.  For example a TL-30 rated safe means that only the door is tool resistant for 30 minutes.  A TRTL -30 safe means that only the door is tool and torch resistant for 30 minutes.
    • If the letter/number is followed by an X 6, then all 6 sides of the safe have that same rating.  For example, a TRTL-30 X 6 safe is torch and tool resistant on all 6 sides for 30 minutes as shown below:

If you have a vault or modular vault, the classifications are as follows for a true vault door:

• • • Class M Vaults are tool and torch resistant for 15 minutes
    • Class I Vaults are tool and torch resistant for 30 minutes
    • And Class 2 Vaults are tool and torch resistant for 1 hour
    • Class 3 vaults are tool and torch resistant for 2 hours
    • Vaults built by general contractors using standard concrete and rebar will have some burglary protection. But these types of vaults use fire safe doors, and those doors will be the weak entry point.  The vault door rating usually specifies the rating for the entire vault.