Prevention At Work

  • Keep your front doors and windows clear of signs and posters to allow good, two way visibility. Employees can see suspicious persons outside. Passers-by and police can see inside.
  • Keep the outside of your business well lit at night.
  • Make sure your cash register area is clearly visible to outside observers.
  • Practice good cash control. Keep a minimum amount in your cash drawer and make regular drops into a safe.
  • Advertise outside that you keep a minimal amount of cash in the register and that you will not accept large bills.
  • Don’t keep large bills under the cash drawer. If you don’t have a safe, find a less obvious place to hide your extra cash until you go to the bank.
  • Use a safe that the clerk cannot open alone or that requires two keys. Post that fact conspicuously, including on the safe itself.
  • Use video camera surveillance and make it well known.
  • Always have at least two clerks working at night.
  • Vary your banking routine. Carry cash in a variety of ways – a lunch sack, attaché case, flight bag, pocket, etc. Money bags ar pretty obvious.
  • Vary the times and routes that you use to go to the bank.
  • Make deposits as often as possible, never less than once a day.
  • Be alert for “customers” who seem to be loitering or glancing around the store while appearing to shop or browse through a magazine.
  • Watch for suspicious persons outside the business – especially in parked cars and around telephone booths.
  • If you see someone who is acting suspicious inside or outside, call the police to have them checked out.
  • Two persons should be on hand at opening and closing times. 
  • At opening time, one person should enter the store and check to see if it has been disturbed.
  • Before closing, one person should check the office, back rooms and rest rooms to make sure no one is hiding inside.
  • Keep side and back doors locked. Have employees use the main entrance, if possible.
  • Place markers at the main entrance that employees can use to help gauge the height of a robber as he leaves.