Fire Departments, Do You Know Where Your 'Knox Box' Keys Are?

Lucky for one dept I found and returned theirs.

By Nick Markowitz

I do occasional subcontract work for an alarm dealer who has a bunch of coal-fired pizza shops and they're notorious for causing false alarms due to coal dust. Well, this morning I received a call from my friend. He needs me to go to one of his locations and replace a smoke detector, which was false alarming.

So I get on site, change the smoke, then go around back of the store where there's a small rear access room accessible only from the outside. To my concern, I see the Knox Box is sitting open and the store's keys are sitting in the door!

Editor's Note: For info on the Knox Box, visit https://www.knoxbox.com/

Now, had I not noticed this key first and a criminal type got hold of it, which was a very good possibility as every car going drive thru window for business next door would see them hanging there, they could have had access to every store front in town that uses a Knox Box. The fire department would have had to re-key every Knox Box in town to prevent the burglar getting into every store undetected without an alarm. Even if they did, he would be in and out with ease if the burglar had this key.

One town had to do this exact thing and re-key can cost well over $2000.00. To make matters worse, the town could be liable for items taken, which could cost thousands of dollars and they could have gotten a call, arrived on scene and found no key, which is an even worse situation.

I carefully put the door keys back in, locked the Knox Box, and took the keys up the street to the fire department. No one had any idea they where even missing it.

Needless to say, they where very happy I found and returned it. I am sure someone got a chewing out, and rightly so. Some new protocols may also follow, which is a good thing.

It is too easy to loose track of your keys. All of us, including myself, have done it before and there's that rush of adrenaline as you frantically search for them.

Luckily this time, other than some embarrassment, no one got hurt, but it could have turned out much worse.

So I ask again, do you know where your Knox Box keys are? Do you have an SOP protocol in place for how they're to be handled?




Note: the key image in no way allows it to be copied this is a level 4 Bixial key way  and does not reveal  its features