On Friday, March 13, late in the afternoon, two mopeds pulled up outside a luxury good store in Mayfair, London (the identity of the store has been withheld). Four men wearing motorcycle helmets and carrying sledge hammers attacked the entrance door to the premises smashing their way through the glass before directing their attention to the watch and jewellery cabinets within.
Almost immediately, the Store Manager initiated the high speed security Fog Bandit which in two seconds projected a 6m long blanket of visually impenetrable yet harmless fog which screened the targeted display cabinets and forced the raiders to flee the store without any reward.
The whole event, from the mopeds appearing outside the store to the raiders fleeing the scene took less than 26 seconds.
Having been the victim of a previous raid in December 2008, with substantial stock losses, the subsequent enhancements to the store security enabled the disruption to business continuity following this second incident to be minimal and the deterrent to future attacks to be significantly strengthened.
The store manager said afterwards: "The Fog Bandit really did its job with the robbers fleeing immediately and empty handed as soon as the system was activated. We would recommend any luxury goods store to protect their stock and staff by getting a Fog Bandit system installed."
The BANDIT
Bandit UK Ltd are the distributor for the UK and Ireland for the security Fog Bandit.
When sensors detect an intruder (overnight protection) or a personal alarm is raised (daytime protection) the BANDIT’s patented high-pressure system delivers a dense, visually impenetrable fog at the rate of 28 cubic metres per second, projecting it 6 metres in the first two seconds alone. An average sized shop, office or showroom of 140 cubic metres takes the fog product distributors say five seconds to fill.
The same BANDIT unit can be used for 24/7 risk applications. Daytime robbery deterrent is achieved by deploying a short controlled activation to create a fog curtain between the raider and the staff and/or goods. Overnight protection is achieved via a longer activation filling the entire area with impenetrable fog where valuable stock, equipment and other contents can be obscured from sight, thus protecting them from the possibility of theft or damage, until the authorities arrive.
