tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44492782546191638992012-01-22T16:12:29.483-08:00Welcome to Observe& Report, Behind the Scenes with Security. This site is dedicated to all the men and women in the Security career field everywhere. While you are here, please remember, Real life is more amusing than fiction!Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-12897230518299921822009-04-30T13:17:00.000-07:002009-04-30T13:40:47.636-07:00

I got a call from the women’s department because there was a lady who wanted to return an expensive dress without a receipt. This happens sometimes because, when you buy someone a present you’re not going to give them the receipt, are you? In this instance though, the sales associate informed me that the lady told her she’d received the dress a few days before, and it couldn’t be possible because

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-91021609369875674982008-12-17T11:21:00.000-08:002009-02-20T11:12:34.890-08:00

We conduct integrity checks on our employees on a regular basis. Basically, I select an employee and I try to tempt them into stealing something. Some take the bait, some don’t. In order to select employees who may be more apt to take the bait, you may have to do some research to see exactly what motivates them. With some, it can be cash, others, merchandise. It all depends.A good investigator

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-68574488292835294562008-08-29T15:47:00.000-07:002008-08-29T17:19:44.006-07:00

Once, I worked as a guard for a company that had a Government contract. It was really easy, but the pay was lousy. I made $6.00 per hour. Every day, I’d get the paper when I got off and look for another job. The guys I worked with thought I was crazy.Late night, we’d stand around and talk. They were basically happy making peasant wages. Not me, every night, I’d tell them I was getting out of here

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-64848255499216259332008-08-06T10:14:00.000-07:002008-08-06T10:25:33.756-07:00

One of our LP managers had a problem with an employee who was ripping off merchandise on Saturdays, which happened to be the manager’s day off. When I found out about it, I asked her why she didn’t call me so I could come in and take care of it. Well, the girl in question was the girlfriend of my best friend, and he himself was a LP manager at one of our other stores. I explained that I didn’t

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-39567994486135326372008-07-08T20:56:00.000-07:002008-07-08T21:47:07.490-07:00

Just like any other job, working security is no different. We've all worked along side some strange and interesting people, however in security at times I think we get the abundance of them.Everyone of us has at one time or another worked with someone whom has done something just so utterly stupid that you didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for the poor soul. So for today I think I'll

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-79724656874349185472008-06-22T14:34:00.000-07:002008-06-22T15:26:09.228-07:00

I accepted a position as Assistant Director of Security at a Mall on the Las Vegas Strip. I've been in security for quit awhile working my way up the ladder and although I've had many positions that were challenging, I knew from meeting the first officer at the property this would by far be my biggest challenge.I pulled up into the parking garage and I called the Director on the phone to inform

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-74455263631737206842008-04-11T09:51:00.000-07:002008-04-11T09:56:48.959-07:00

Security Specialist Tells All For most of us, security is an area we know little about—yet one that impacts us all. Thanks to years of Hollywood stereotyping, security officers have been painted as uneducated slackers, incapable of obtaining a real job. The truth of the matter is that most of these disrespected “slackers” know more about security than your average police officer. Unless you

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-6798268677545099542008-03-01T11:43:00.000-08:002009-02-18T11:19:19.373-08:00

When you first start working for a guard company, they usually send you to different locations until they find one that fits you or one that they have trouble filling. Unfortunately, most time of the time, it’s the latter of the two.During this moving period, you meet some cool people. I met a fat guy who worked with me at a gated community one night. He told me all about the company and the good

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-42308699117669092622008-02-05T09:35:00.000-08:002008-02-05T09:39:35.254-08:00

I had just started at a new company and was being introduced to everyone as they came into the store. Later in the morning, this guy, who worked in the men’s department, came back and struck up a conversation with me. It was cool and all, but, I’d been doing this too long to dismiss this as just a friendly guy. Later in the day, the same employee came by when I was on a break smoking a

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-6305845741508976442008-01-27T12:30:00.000-08:002008-01-27T12:35:01.837-08:00

I had an appointment with a wife and husband about installing a system in their new home. The couple had recently retired and moved to the city where I worked. When I arrived, another guy was getting out of his car. I figured that the couple was price shopping for a system. Price shopping is not an exact science for security systems because companies do different things. Very seldom, do you

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-76269059225044999442008-01-21T13:02:00.000-08:002008-01-21T13:10:24.487-08:00

There are officers who take too many chances. Instead of seeing all the steps, they’d see one or two, and then they’d make the stop anyway. But eventually, your luck runs out on you. We had a girl who went into the fitting room to watch a couple of females try on items. While walking out, she noticed another girl in a fitting cubicle, next to theirs, place a dress into her shopping bag.Now, she

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-7565046782605713042008-01-12T12:57:00.000-08:002008-01-12T13:04:54.952-08:00

We were doing floor checks in the middle of the night. As we arrived on one floor, we saw a nude body lying on the ground at the other end of the hall. We were both thinking, “I hope this fucker isn’t dead”. We got closer and could see that his chest was rising and falling with each breath, we both let out a sigh of relief. My co-worker walked over to one side and nudged the guy with his foot.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-3090183729439241852008-01-06T14:09:00.000-08:002008-01-06T14:35:38.355-08:00

The one major downside to working in asset protection or loss prevention is, you lose the urge to go shopping. You just don’t want to do it. On your day off, the last thing you want to do is go to a mall where people are shopping. My girlfriend does not even ask me to go shopping with her anymore. She says it’s too frustrating. She’s trying on clothes and I’m pointing out who’s stealing. It

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-80066209833154550782008-01-04T21:16:00.000-08:002008-01-04T21:27:04.623-08:00

When you first arrive on a new base, mostly, you do gate duties. It’s not that bad, but it can get pretty boring. Occasionally, something happens to break the boredom but those times are seldom. When you’re on the main gate on the midnight shift, there are two of you. After I’d been there for a while, I got into how things worked. One person would sleep out of sight of anyone that might

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-53614180834699118712008-01-01T13:18:00.000-08:002008-01-01T13:39:45.695-08:00

I got a call in the middle of the night and it was a customer that had almost his entire inventory stolen from his warehouse. I was half asleep and he was begging me to meet him at his location. Hell, he wasn’t even my client. On the way there, I thought to myself, “Why the hell is he calling me?”I got there and it was a mess, cops everywhere. The suspects had driven a truck through one of his

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-47751414417454075452007-12-30T23:59:00.000-08:002008-01-01T13:29:02.537-08:00

One evening, I walked into my office to see that a female officer already had a female suspect handcuffed. The officer told me the story of the arrest, then, she whispered to me that the suspect had a partner waiting for her by the front door. She winked and told me that the partner also had merchandise from our store based on the statement of her arrested friend. I walked to the front of the

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-84980681768436943542007-12-27T23:52:00.000-08:002008-01-01T13:30:28.487-08:00

I got out of the Air Force in Omaha, Nebraska, and my girlfriend was living in Hawaii. Before I had signed my last separation document, she’d already booked my airline ticket back to the Islands. She made pretty good money, and, the first thing she said when I arrived, was for me to take some time off, relax, go to the beach and do some of the things I didn’t have time for when I was stationed

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-23843473046306867172007-12-25T17:39:00.000-08:002008-01-01T13:31:48.631-08:00

My co-worker got arrested an hour before he was supposed to come to work. His wife had an accident right outside his home. When he went to check on her, the cops found that his car didn’t have any insurance and the registration was expired. So, instead of going to work, he went to jail. With his only phone call, he called the hotel and told them he was sick. The next night, when he came to

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-9063612463599402112007-12-22T07:21:00.000-08:002008-01-01T13:32:49.090-08:00

My first guard job, when I came out of the Corps, didn’t last long. I was hired to work for a company in LA, and they sent me to guard a junk yard. I was just out of the Corps, so, I was still a little bit eaten up. Regardless of the uniform I was wearing, I had to be all spit and polished. I arrived at the junk yard and reported to the owner. Man, was he an asshole. But, he was a former

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-47925443865015696922007-12-19T18:26:00.000-08:002008-01-01T13:33:58.672-08:00

Authors note* This incident happened in Hawaii and is one of my favorites.We were assigned to Kunia Point Satellite tracking station on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii. It was about a thirty minute drive from our regular base. When you get there, there’s a guard shack at the bottom of the entrance near the beach. The guard shack is usually manned by two DOD (Department of Defense) guards. We

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-78839631231307147112007-12-15T11:59:00.000-08:002008-01-01T13:36:26.780-08:00

Last week while on the way to work I received a call from my secretary. She was a little bit agitated and stated she was leaving work because the Police Department had called her and informed her that someone had attempted to break into her home.I asked her a few simple questions in an attempt to calm her down to open her eyes to what she may or may not be getting herself into.Question number one

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4449278254619163899.post-67006560039443787802007-06-03T21:45:00.000-07:002008-01-01T13:37:48.079-08:00

A couple of days ago the kindergarten that my daughter attends sent her home with note stating that a company was to arrive the following week to create IDs for the students. The cost was minimal and at first glance I didn't give it a second thought.My wife raised the issue to me and I looked over the note and observed that the name of the person originally whom was to create the IDs had been

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12314031588880606114noreply@blogger.com1