Enjoy Your Vacation in Style

Posted on: 1 September 2017

Finding out that your retail store has been broken into can be downright scary. However, no matter how overwhelmed and apprehensive you might feel, it is important to keep your wits about you. The actions you take in the coming days will play a huge role in determining whether the perpetrator is caught, ensuring that you are compensated for the damages and stolen goods, and preventing the same thing from happening again in the future. To that end, here are four things you should take care of as soon as possible after your store is broken into.

Replace the Locks

Even if the burglar came in through a broken window or other means, it's important to contact a commercial locksmith at a company like The Locksmith House and have them replace all of the exterior locks on your store. The perpetrator could have gained possession of a key while they were in your store, which would enable them to enter and steal from you again in the future. And if the thief did enter through the door, re-keying or replacing the locks will ensure that if they do have a key, they can't use it again.

When you have your locks replaced, consider having a keypad entry system installed. This way, if you ever have trouble with a break-in again, you can just change the access code rather than having to go through the process of another lock replacement.

Copy the Security Footage

While you would hate to think that one of your employees or someone you know could be responsible for the break-in, it is certainly possible. Employee theft costs American business owners $50 billion a year, and many employees are just not as loyal as you might assume them to be. If someone on the inside is responsible for the break-in, they might have access to the security footage that captured the actions of the thief — and if they have access to this footage, they may seek to destroy it in the days following the crime.

To ensure the footage is safe, take the time to make a copy right now. Save the copy to a secure cloud storage drive, or email it to yourself so you can access it from anywhere. Make sure the police have a copy, too, along with your lawyer.

Give Police a List of Your Employees

Again, you have to be prepared for the possibility that one of your employees either "broke in" themselves or had a friend do so. It's not wise to try and interrogate these employees yourself; you're not trained to do so. What you should do, however, is give a list of your employees' names to the police. This way, the police can contact each employee and question them to see if there's reason to suspect any of them were involved in the break-in.

Look Over What's Missing

You have probably already checked for missing inventory and cash, but take the time to go through everything else in the store to make sure nothing else is missing. Look through your notebooks, records, electronics, and even appliances to make sure everything is there. Burglars do not always break in to steal money. Sometimes, they might be after pass codes to your bank accounts and other valuable information. It's a good idea to change all of your passwords and pin numbers just in case someone got ahold of them. And contact police and your insurance company immediately if you notice that anything beyond inventory and cash is missing or appears to have been tampered with.

Having someone break into your store can be heartbreaking, but if you tackle the tasks above, you can expedite the investigation and hopefully save yourself from some future hassles.