Why National Retailers need to double check who they hire to do there security work

 A True Story .An alarm technician walks into a national retailer of novelty's store's in a mall in Washington County Pa.  He greats the manager shows her his work order and the motion sensor  he is suppose to hook up. Well  as usual the wrong one has been sent it can not be hooked in. He asks to use a phone sits down at the cramped managers desk to use the phone to call dispatch  to tell them they sent the wrong unit. He leaves in a huff with a few swear words and says he will be back.
Later that evening the manager a very good looking single woman gets a call on her phone . It is the alarm technician he wants to know if she would like to go on a dinner date. Shes shocked how did he get her number .
Oh maybe he saw it while her cell phone was on the desk. She hangs up thinking that's it . The calls persist . She then calls her corporate security people to report it and they say they will get hold of the alarm provider and get its stopped. But its too late 2 hours later the alarm technician is now banging on the door of here apartment . She calls the police the alarm technician is charged with stalking her and during the interrogation he admits he looked at the Rolodex  on her desk and got her personal information.
 I only know this because I worked for the same  National Accounts Servicing Company  based in  Florida as a Sub Contractor and got called to go in and fix the mess that was created. I went to the store and took care of the problem and apologized to the manager for what she had been thru and hear from her how  the technician arrested was some one I knew.
It did not surprise me
I had a previous run in with this outfit he worked for before for doing poor quality work and they where thrown of a project.

So Ok an isolated incident . No not really because many of these National Alarm  Accounts Servicing Company's do absolutely no background checks on who they hire. They call a local distributor for a recommendation and that's it. I was never asked to provide any kind of info for any National Accounts Alarm Company ever and here I am putting alarms in Dollar Stores , High End Fashion Shops,  Rental Stores, even Pay Day/ Check Cashing Stores. To make matters worse there are absolutely no regulations or rules on the operation of alarm company's who do commercial work in State of Pennsylvania. Nothing is required No Bonding, No Background Checks No Insurance  absolutely nothing . Convicted Felons can and do work for and own alarm company's in Pa. and it is all perfectly legal because there are no regulations.
Add to this the fact Too many of these National Alarm Servicing Company's pay poorly always trying to rip off
installers there is always an extremely high turn over. Stores never get the same technician twice in a row.
and since they send everything by fax and email job order forms can be easily forged and any tech can walk in and in most cases are  never questioned what he is doing there and are left unsupervised in back rooms and store offices to rip off any customer information or stores client list they want.
A pretty sad situation all the way around. When I explained this to a district manager she was in shock her company cared so little that they made sure reputable people where servicing there alarms and that a convicted felon could be doing the work in her stores.
Add in the fact too many of these retailers run very sloppy operations when it comes to store security and maintenance requests to have them fixed  . I have seen 3 techs all show up for same call. Been sent to stores to install cameras already installed . Have double and triple equipment sent to sites and a call tag to send stuff back never sent and it sits there till it is thrown out for being in the way you wonder how any store is making money. So tell me do you work in a national retailer and feel safe when technicians come to your store to do things.?
Most techs also carry no official ID either. Its all done on a trust . If you dress like a tech act like a tech you must be there to work. What a hell of a way to run a business.

Another telephone vendor trying to rip off a Customer

One of my customers recently experienced a water line break in there business and had plenty of items damaged including the fire system and they thought the phone system . Well they call there telephone vendor  who sends out  a technician who tells them the system is shot and needs replaced. He was quoted $4400.00 for 4 phones. which is pretty high considering the equipment costs the vendor about $1600.00  that's a tidy profit for couple hours work of going click click and program it  in under 3 hours.
Well he asks me while installing the new  fire alarm  board which was water soaked and calcified do you work on phones by chance ? well yes I do and in fact the Avaya Phone system he has is one I install and service so he asked me to look it over and give him a price.  He  also asked if I could giggle the old systems boards around to get him partial service. Sure I said  I went down stairs looked at system It did not even seem damaged except for couple cables got wet. I replaced them fired up the system and it was working perfectly there was nothing wrong with it. the whole reason line 1and 2 where not working is because these where the lines the fire alarm was tied to and fire alarm was blocking the lines . So at that point there was no sense in ordering a new system unless he wanted to upgrade.
So then you have to say to your self what exactly did this phone technician look at and test when he came and said the system was dead ? Its very obvious he was not interested in servicing an older system he wanted to sell a new system for his boss and get a nice commission for doing so. Needless to say this company will never again be called by my customer who also told them he is not paying for the service call since they tried to rip him off.he has also told other business friends as well about getting ripped off by this vendor.
Had  I not checked things he would have been buying a $4400.00 dollar system for no good reason and lining a vendors pockets. This was a total rip off and he has filed a complaint against the company who tried to rip him off. A very large telco vendor here in Pittsburgh.
Always always get a second opinion on something like this when a tech says something is dead and its high ticket get it checked out first before getting ripped off.

Another case of Mass fire deaths that where preventable

http://www.wtae.com/news/30752793/detail.html

The story all too familiar a family party and stay over and this time 6 children and 2 adults dead  and as usual no working smoke detectors Its happens 2-3 times a year in the tri-state area of Ohio ,Pa. and West Virginia  multiple residential fire deaths and there is absolutely no excuse for it.
They give smoke detectors away for free. You just have to put them up and maintain them. If these people had a couple more minutes notice they might all have made it out safely, But thru Ignorance, Lack of understanding ,lack of education or just plain stupidity  or all off the above we have 8 dead in Charleston W. Va. just as it was 10 dead  in Brookville Pa. and 10 dead in
Greene County Pa. and 6 dead in Akron Ohio couple years ago under same scenario.We just had the case of 6 dead in a home in Connecticut when some one put fire place ashes in a paper bag and set it in a mud room and there where no detectors in a high end home couple months back.
You say well that's why we should have sprinklers in all homes sorry the same thing would have played out because they would have turned the water off as well because they did not maintain the sprinklers either.
back to that human nature thing it can not happen to me.
Some times you have to wonder if this is not just human nature thinning out the heard as they say.
or there just too stupid too live and its there fate.or they thought oh it just is not going to happen to us.
 It still does not make it right. These deaths where 100% preventable but just like with the case with the Amish and fire. The question  is what we do for the good of the people vs privacy and religious beliefs?
We have the technology to make 10 year battery life tied in cellular reporting smoke detectors which can even tell if there being blocked by something or tampered with. But do we bust down doors and demand there installed and if not we haul them to court and put them in jail because they have not protected there children because there so stupid and negligent ?  sometimes like in this case that seems to be the only answer.

But there's also plenty of questions to be asked of the manufacturers of  smoke detectors and the Fire Service it self.

Why are you still promoting and putting in Ionization Smoke Detectors which are known trouble makers with nuisance alarms and which are known to have delay issues?

These false alarms are known reasons why people take smoke detectors down block them or take the batteries out of them.Why are we not promoting  Photo Electric Smoke Detectors which do not have the falsing issue and accurately catch fires much faster than Ionization type units/

Electrically Operated Lift Chair Dangers

My neighbor
across the street has 2 sweet elderly parents who ran a old fashioned Italian grocery store before they retired and now that there getting up in age they have developed joint problems and several years ago bought one of those electrically powered lift chairs to help get up and down from a sitting position.
It simply plugs into a 120 volt Ac outlet and has a small electric motor which operates the chair. Well couple weeks back
they had a breaker trip in there breaker panel which serves the chair at same time they had several other items on so it looked like a simple overload . I went and restored the breaker and the chair operated just fine with no apparent problems . Then he calls me couple days ago and says the chair goes up but not down , this has happened before it was a bad switch control could I check it out. I go over and start checking things and lift the chair to check all the connections and here to my horrors was the control cable stuck in the metal frame and that it had shorted out .This is what cased the problem 2 weeks back and despite the damage the chair kept operating.
But as you can see the cord is burned the chair very well could have caught fire.
which means this control cable has 120 volts AC running thru it. Not low voltage being transformed down like you would think because of the fact this cord could be caught and shorted causing a fire.
This is a very bad and very dangerous design the control cord should have low voltage being used for control purposes not 120 volts which can fray crack and rub and cause an electrocution to person using the chair.
I temporarily fixed the wire with proper butt splices and tape and have ordered a new cord and in mean time shown this cord to a Electrical engineer I work with occasionally who is involved in fires from electrical products for further investigation.
I am also looking to see if this chair might have been recalled as well.

Linking and using my blog articles

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have a great and safe weekend everyone

The Battle of Chicken Hill

As you drive west bound on I- 376 thru the Fort Pitt Tunnels and come out bound from Downtown Pittsburgh as you come out of the tunnels on your right hand side you pass by the site of a famous Pittsburgh gun battle which took place in 1959 in what became known as the battle of Chicken Hill.
between the Pittsburgh Police Dept and 2 notorious bank robbers. I know about this chapter in Pittsburgh History because of the story my grandfather told me who lived near by in Westwood.

First a little back round Chicken Hill as it is known was called this because of early settlers who kept and raised chickens on the hill a small section of Pittsburgh's West End. Which was significantly cut back during excavation in early 1950's for I-376 also known as the Parkway west. where 2 railroad tunnels where day lighted and replaced with bridges over the parkway the lower one that serves the Old Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad which started as Wabash Railroad and the higher bridge Operated by Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad which started as the Norfolk & Western Railroad. My dad as a young man actually helped build the intersection known as the Banksville Circle which connects ramps under the bridges.

So on with the story July 23, 1959 a hot sunny summer day 2 men Joesph Gaito and Edward Kern walk into the no longer in existence People's First National Bank and Trust company in Hays Pa. a small ward of the city of Pittsburgh located between Baldwin Boro and Homestead Pa.
The thieves make a clean get away they think taking off thru Baldwin Boro into the south hills of Pittsburgh and over into the Mt Lebanon area  where they are spotted by police and take off towards the west end Crashing there get away car and then taking off on foot up Chicken Hill trying to escape there pursuers . which begins a several hour long gun battle in the hot dusty sunny day between Pittsburgh ,Allegheny County and Pa. State police which saw high drama as both crooks and police climbed around the bridges . Both criminals eventually surrender after both are wounded by sharp shooters but not before 2 police officers are wounded as well. Both men get 20 plus year sentences for bank robbery which Mr Gaito serves and is released never to be heard from again or so you would think . But in the late 80's an elderly Mr. Gaitos is once again a suspect in an armed robbery of a grocery store , he is eventually cleared when a local priest claims he was having dinner with Mr. Gaitos who quietly passes away a few years later in Florida.
There are no markers or any thing else to mark the area of the event just some fading memories , an old Pitt News reel  from KDKA TV and old newspaper articles of the event which happened several months before I was born.
There have been many high profile criminal dramas as well as horrific tragedies around South Western Pa. some even made into movies like Mrs. Soffel and the Biddle Brothers and there escape from the Allegheny County Jail with Mrs. Sofffel the wardens wife and the Murder of Union Coal boss Jake Yublonski and his family . But so many lost to history. I hope to do more research and present some of the more significant cases as they have many important safety and moral lessons that are useful to this day.

A fire at one of my customers buildings lessons learned questions to ponder

Last Tuesday at 8:41 PM 3.13.12 The Alarm Telecommunications Center (ATC) in Wheatland Pa. received a front Stairwell smoke detector activation from my customers apartment building which has a heating business on one side and and an insurance business on the first floor. A typical main street building along west Liberty ave in Dormont Pa.
911 was called and fire dept was already on way as a tenant called to report a fire. The system an Ademco /Honeywell Vista 32 FB combo Burglar fire system did its job when the smoke from the 2nd floor apartment made its way to the front stairwell and activated the system to alert tenants there was a problem. all tenants got out safely including those in the building next door which has some damage in all 8 tenants safely escaped both buildings.
The fire appears to be accidental and Allegheny County Fire Marshal Office is finishing up there investigation of it. Because the system is addressable I was able to hand over to Chief Fire Marshal Don Brucker the print out from the central station as to how the points came in to help with the investigation exactly which detector went off first and then which order they went off from there.
I installed the system around 2005 when the building was sold and required to have a fire system installed to be occupied with help from JS Boyle Electric. Thats one good thing Dormont Fire Marshal Pat Kelly has been making sure that as buildings change owners they install and have working fire systems Mr. Kelly works hard to make sure tenants are safe as he has over 100 apartment buildings in town.

Hopefully the building which is from 1870's vintage with its still visible cut glass windows will have its damaged apartments repaired and be fully reoccupied in a few months and the Heating business is still able to operate and I reactivated a partial alarm to protect the building in the mean time.from fire and burglary.
So what can be learned from this fire .Well one thing is its unique design since it was originally lighted with Gas Lights the building had a window well which allows day light down to the interior of the apartments.They also call these winter gardens some tenants actually hang plants in them etc. normally there open on the top which allows
people to open there interior windows into the well to help cool the buildings as they act as a chimney drafting hot air up. This is also a bad feature as well as it allowed the fire to get a good foot hold before firefighters arrived. Some landlords have sealed them off on top and even in between floors to reclaim floor space and help prevent fire spread as well.
But this building was left alone. Had it been sealed off on top the fire spread might not have been as fast but that's one of the unique things tenants like about the wells you can feel like your outside with out being outside. So to seal or not to seal is the question?
Next there was a small delay before the fire alarm activated should there not be system connected smokes in the apartments as well if there's a fire would this not catch the fire faster?
Yes it would but be careful what you wish for . Those apartments smokes connected to the system means every time a tenant burns toast fire trucks are on the way. Thats why typically system connected smokes are only in stair and hall ways. Buildings with smokes in each apartment tied to system are headaches for fire depts. So you ask is there some kind of compromise system that could have been used. Well most community's require individual battery powered smokes in each unit. But there are options like installing rate of rise heat detectors in each apartment and fixed heats in kitchens there by catching a fire faster and not having all the false alarms and there are even isolated heat /smoke detectors where smoke detector is powered and supervised off the fire panel but only sounds in the apartment and the heat detector is attached to the system . But this is currently not required by code at this time and
it would also add considerable expense to do this. But a good thing if you can afford it.
Then there's the fire alarm a Combo Burg/Fire system .
I hear complaints all the time how some do not like them they would rather a separate fire system be installed. Sorry I have been using them for almost 20 years now never had a problem and they always worked this one even had water damage and was still transmitting signals.
It comes down to who is installing it. Thats one thing I always have to be mindful of I try my best to make sure there done right and that goes for all alarm systems peoples lives are on the line and this proves just how valuable a system can be. Properly installed properly maintained they work.

In my community it was the law a Trolley stopped for a Fire Man

Back in the heyday of trolleys believe it or not in the community of Carrick Pa. which became part of the city of Pittsburgh and is now its 29th ward and where I grew up before moving out of the city . It was the law for trolley operators to stop and pick up a fireman along his route if he was standing there in his fire gear and take him intermediately to the closet stop where the fire was located.
Now remember this was back in the early 1900's not everyone had a vehicle and in fact horses where still being used for delivering milk etc.
So it only made sense that this was and back then trolleys went everywhere . You could board a trolley in Pittsburgh and by switching to various trolly lines at one time be able to go all the way to Cleveland , Detroit even Chicago by trolley and rail line. Some trolley lines even carried freight and even had special ambulance cars which got people to hospitals.
Several other community's which had trolleys also are suppose to have had this law on there books as well.
You can view more carrick trolley pictures and even read articles I wrote on them as part of my Eagle scout project on history of carrick at following link.

http://wiki.carrick-overbrook.org/Trolleys_in_Carrick

Because this was the fastest way to get to a fire scene it was also the fastest way to get away from a crime as well. and in City of Pittsburgh in 1960's an individual became famously known as the Commuter Bandit as he would rob a bank then hop on a trolley to make his escape even back then trolleys often had there own rights of way to get thru areas fast. He was even charged with Robbing a bank in Carrick as well. Ironically a friend of ,my dads who he worked with at J&L steel. His wife Deloris worked at the grocery store where the commuter bandit was the owner it turned out.

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/470/717/110903/

This was a fascinating era now gone and only a hand full of towns still have trolleys or street cars in use. most modernized and there are a handful of museums like near Washington Pa. where you can still ride one of these great old relics.

http://www.pa-trolley.org/

But Pittsburgh Railways which ran the big net work of trolleys before it was taken over by Allegheny county Transit authority known as PAT Port authority transit. Still exists and was a one time big player in the Alarm Business . They are still known today as Pittway that's right the people who bought and expanded ADEMCO Alarm systems till they sold out to Honeywell.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Pittway-Corporation-company-History.html