Multifamily community parking lots provide a highly requested amenity: a guaranteed parking spot for residents’ vehicles that are commonly near their apartment homes. Because vehicles are parked in the same location, however, they are concentrated into a single area. This makes it easier for thieves and vandals to weave through parked vehicles and attempt to access multiple vehicles.
Stealth’s live video monitoring helps prevent parking lots from becoming a chronic pain point that most apartment owners, managers and employees deal with in terms of theft, vandalism, loitering and other unwanted activities.
Around 3 o’clock in the morning, a vehicle was pulled into an apartment parking lot and backed into a parking space. Stealth’s highly trained security operator saw three individuals exit the vehicle, immediately run toward other parked vehicles and pull on their door handles. Our operator called local police and continued to watch the trespassers run though aisles of parked vehicles.
The trespassers accessed the trunk of a vehicle, shut it, returned to their vehicle and drove it to another part of the property. The driver parked the vehicle. The trespassers exited and took off running as police cruisers arrived. Officers looked around but were unable to find the trespassers. A tow truck took the trespassers’ vehicle off property.
Police requested footage of the incident.
Live Video Monitoring Helps Deter Car-Related Crimes in Community Parking Lots
Where people choose to park their vehicles can directly affect risk of car-related crimes. Theft of the vehicle itself, theft of items stored inside the vehicle or theft of car valuable car parts, especially catalytic converters tend to occur because a vehicle was parked in an unsecured location with many other parked vehicles. Perpetrators seek out such locations because they can duck between, beside and under vehicles to go unnoticed and easily escape being seen or caught.
A powerful strategy to help reduce the chance of your residents’ vehicles being the center of a crime is to make it more difficult to commit car crimes on your property. Provide a fenced-in, gated parking lot with residents-only access. Make sure the parking lot is well lit. Deploy Stealth’s live video monitoring security solution to watch for and help deter unwanted events 24/7.
Our experienced multifamily security experts work with apartment communities across North America. They help community owners and managers determine prevalent types of car crimes taking place in their area and develop a proactive, effective strategy, centered around our live video monitoring security solution. High-definition, IP video surveillance cameras – from brands vetted and trusted by Stealth – are strategically placed within the vicinity of your parking lot. Cameras are aimed in such a way that they capture and record events in real time. Our technology enables highly trained security operators to see these real-time events and act to deter unwanted situations.
In this video, officers arrived just as the trespassers were fleeing from their vehicle and off the property. Officers were unable to catch them. However, our solution recorded the entire incident so police can use the recorded data to investigate the incident. Also, because of our operator’s timing, officers were able to obtain important vehicle information – license plate number, VIN, make, model, etc. – that the trespassers arrived in and fled from which could be valuable in their investigation.
Contact our multifamily security specialists to discuss your parking lot/garage security strategy and how Stealth can help deter car-related crime at your community.
