Multifamily residential communities offer a variety of common areas and amenities to provide residents with one-of-a-kind living experiences. Most communities provide open access to these areas 24/7. This is great for residents, but can also inadvertently invite thieves, trespassers and other criminals as well.
Suspect with Screwdriver Caught Trying to Break into Laundry Machines and Mailboxes
In the wee morning hour of around three o’clock, a sharp-eyed Stealth Monitoring operator saw a male turn off the lights and leave an apartment community’s laundry room after attempting to break into the laundry machines with a screwdriver. Our operator immediately called police and continued to watch the unfolding action.
The male entered the community’s mailroom with the same screwdriver in his left hand and a roll of paper towels tucked under his right arm. The male forced open several mailboxes with the screwdriver and retrieved the contents found inside.
The suspect exited the mailroom and walked down the community’s sidewalk toward a vehicle parked in the lot. The suspect entered the vehicle, only to be met by two police cruisers that pulled up behind the vehicle.
An officer exited a cruiser and approached the suspect sitting inside the vehicle.
Guy Trying to Steal Two Bikes from Apartment Bike Room
One of our equipped operators recognized a peculiar male carrying a tote bag walk down hallway full of storage lockers at a multifamily community right around 4:30 in the morning. After setting his bag onto the floor and glancing around the corner at the elevator door, the male gained access into a storage locker. Our quick-thinking operator contacted police.
He emerged with one bike and propped it up against the wall. He reentered the storage room and emerged with a second bike. He walked it to the exit door, propped it up against the wall and walked back for the other bike. He walked both bikes out the exit door.
Two police officers promptly arrived at the community. They intercepted the suspect and placed him under arrest. Both bicycles were safely returned to the storage locker.
Police Apprehended Thief with Armful of Mail
Close to 1:30 in the morning, a Stealth Monitoring security operator, trained to spot suspicious activity taking place within multifamily communities, saw an individual pry open a large, front panel of mailboxes. The individual stuffed parcel after parcel into a large trash bag, slammed the panel shut and exited the mailroom.
Our operator kept watch and the same person returned, crossing through the community beside the pool. The individual approached the row of mailboxes and continued to pry open large, front panels of mailboxes and stuffed mail found inside each box into a trash bag. Our operator contacted local police.
Holding an arm full of stolen pieces of mail, the suspect turned to find two police officers approaching. One officer placed handcuffs on the suspect and the two officers escorted him away from the mail area.
Pair Causing Trouble in Several Community Common Areas
An extremely perceptive Stealth Monitoring security operator saw two individuals enter a multifamily community’s mailroom around 2:30 a.m. After attempting to access multiple mailboxes, they exited the mailroom. Our operator contacted police and the community’s guard per pre-established protocol.
The two individuals made their way to the community’s lobby area and then went to the community’s parking garage. Two officers entered the parking garage while a police cruiser paused at the garage’s entry/exit.
As the trespassers walked between vehicles and attempted to gain access to some of them, police officers searched for the individuals. Both suspects were located and arrested.
Don’t Allow Unscrupulous People to “Steal” the Joy of Using Community Common Areas
Common areas of multifamily communities, such as parking garages, pools, gyms, mail and package rooms, etc., are provided as little luxuries to be enjoyed by residents. Therefore, apartment communities tend to make these areas easy to access at any time and on any day. This also makes these areas popular for suspicious, unwanted and criminal behaviors and events to take place.
In each of the above scenarios, unscrupulous people attempted to wreak havoc inside four different multifamily community’s common areas. Each of these isolated and unconnected events took place in the early morning hours when employees were not actively working at the communities. This seems to offer two prevalent precursors to theft in common areas: 1. It tends to happen during early morning hours in darkness. 2. It tends to happen when no employees are working at the community. Thieves don’t think they’re being monitored or watched during off hours.
However, our quick-thinking operators were able to contact police during each incident which led to police engaging with the suspects and arresting them.
Our team of security specialist are available to work with you to design a camera system for your unique community. Cameras will be place in the most relevant locations and angled correctly so that our trained monitoring professionals can watch your property and act when needed based on your specific protocols.
Stealth’s combination of video and human intelligence provides the highest level of security. This helps maximize rental rates and diminish vacancies and can be achieved at 25% to 60% less than the cost of courtesy officers.
Contact us
today to work with us to offer your residents peace of mind when using your community’s common areas to enhance their quality of life.
