Score one for the good guys!

Working at Sonitrol, I've been learning what the normal audio activations from accounts sound like. For the past couple of weeks, we kept getting valid activations from an abandoned grocery store in town from the audio sensors and interior motion detectors. Each time they activate, me and my co-worker will dispatch police only to find everyone gone and a tag on the account as "False Alarm".

Friday was rough. We could hear them breaking in. They used a saw on one of the already boarded up windows. They entered, and they ran off with whatever they were looking for. I was arguing with the cops for too long for them to effectively do their job. That was the police dispatchers fault, not the cop on the beat. My co-worker and I were furious that we had the chance and couldn't get them.

I guess criminals aren't logical thinkers. The guys who broke into the building weren't professionals, and they certainly weren't of age. Juveniles. You could hear them skating in front of the store, you could hear them plot. The sad part was, they didn't know when to stop.

You see, had they been ok with their own malfecence, they could have been another statistic on burglary rates in the city. Instead, they got cocky. They tempted fate again on Saturday. They figured they didn't get caught the day before. Might as well try again. Their luck was with them, we managed to get a police unit to the scene but unfortunately, they left before police got there. They succeeded in breaking a window.

Then, last night, everything changed.

Last night Colette and myself were in central station and were pretty busy for most of our shift. Colette went to work on some paperwork of hers, and I sat back and started to monitor the RADDS. Since buying my new phone, I will admit I was text messaging people most of my shift, but I was keeping a keen ear out on the alarms. I looked up at the latest account to send our system an alarm activation, and it was the abandoned grocery store.

They returned.

This time, they were faster getting into the building. I guess the previous times they entered they paved an easy path into the business. I got the alarms and immediately started the recording process. All audio from the account was being recorded on a simple $1.89 audio tape. I then started to call dispatch, when Colette decided to try a different routine. I cleared as many alarms from the screen as possible and focused on the audio of the alarm and locations. Colette called for police dispatch and as a team worked on giving the police all the information they needed.

It seemed like it took a while. I would sit and listen to the kids break items inside the store, then follow their steps inside. For a moment, it sounded like they ran away. The detectors couldn't detect anything and for a moment, I thought they took out a sensor in their rampage. Then, as I raised the volume to its maximum volume, I could hear running. Lots of running. Then I heard police radios. I couldn't hear what the cops were saying, but they definitely found something. I looked at Colette as she got final parting words from police dispatch, she held up three fingers.

We caught three suspects.

Listening back to the audio detectors, we could hear the policeman enter the business and access the damages. Then, his partner could be heard talking about the charges. From what they mentioned, they're being charged with criminal trespass & criminal breaking & entering. Colette and I finally had a chance to catch our breaths & gave ourselves a high five for the great tag-team on this successful assistance apprehension.

I had this sense of pride and accomplishment that I had never felt before and thought to myself this morning that its probably the same feeling police officers feel when they apprehend someone. It feels great.