Should You Add Security Cameras

Why should you even consider whether or not to add Security Cameras to your laundry? A lot of laundry owners have installed cameras to fight back against vandalism and customer fraud. By installing a camera system to cover their laundries, they do just that. Today, laundromat businesses can be seen by their owners via remote viewing from their homes or even while traveling abroad. All it takes is a laptop and the right programs. Imagine being able to manage your laundry business, giving orders to employees and seeing what is going on while away on vacation. With the right set up for the security cameras, you too can finally take a vacation, Not only can this be done from a distance, it has made the possibility of out of town ownership a reality. Not only out of town, but out of state ownership is now fairly common using remote viewing systems. ARE THE SYSTEMS VERY EXPENSIVE? According to some security specialists, one can buy a complete surveillance system for a typical laundry quite reasonably. They can vary in size, complexity and price. Systems can be installed for around $150 per month, more or less, and paid for on a lease purchase basis. The agreement will include scanning cameras with housings and 24 hour commercial grade VCRs with day, date & time stamp capability. The lease purchase agreement could also include a monthly monitoring service, tieing in the scanning with a businesses alarm system. That is not the usual case for laundries. That is because in the laundry industry, people normally alarm first and then install their security cameras later. On a lease purchase basis, payments can be deducted as expense, and at the end of the lease period, there can be a one dollar buy out to make the system the property of the laundry. Check with a tax advisor about how to handle it – as a lease or as a purchase. This is, under normal circumstances, too small an amount to mess with the IRS over. During such a lease, responsibility for equipment, including any replacement or maintenance remains with the system’s installer. It is not the responsibility of the laundry owner. WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE DAILY TAPES? Most laundry owners don’t review their tapes unless something goes wrong. Most retain tapes for a few weeks. However, since tapes are fairly inexpensive, laundry operators are encouraged to retain tapes for several months, just in case. Some detail minded operators will review all tapes before erasing them for reuse. With fast forward, such a review can be done quickly. If or when something odd happens, tapes should be kept longer. Let’s say the tape showed a customer slip or fall without injury. If they were to sue, it could be months or even years later. Film of the event could be critical for a legal defense. One of the great, unsung benefits of having video surveillance cameras in an unattended laundry is that their presence has made a considerable reduction in the number and claim amounts for fake slip and fall claims made against laundries. VIDEO CAMERAS CHANGE ATTITUDES. There is something about having security cameras around that changes the attitude of people in coin laundries. Knowing that there are cameras makes even crooks behave better. No one wants to be taped doing anything that might get them into legal trouble. Criminal types tend to look the situation over before making a move. The sight of laundry security system cameras may discourage them from trying anything. They may just move on to a competitor’s laundry where there are no cameras on duty. Normal customers feel more secure at first, and then soon forget that cameras are even there. Laundry operators tend to feel more secure and comfortable having their business constantly surveyed and tape recorded by the cameras. This all makes having security cameras a win, win situation. The customers feel secure, so does the owner. The crooks win too because they are less likely to do anything in front of the cameras that could cause them to do hard time. Cameras help to reduce customer fraud. One owner installed cameras in her coin laundry and shortly after received a complaint from a lady who said she had been in and tried several machines. None worked and she wanted her money back. The owner looked at the tape which showed the customer using a single washer. It worked fine. She dried her clothes and left. In another laundry a customer claimed he put $10 in the changer and got nothing back. The tape showed him filling his hand with quarters. In both cases the claim was sheepishly withdrawn by the customers. A couple went to the coffee shop next door while their clothes were drying. They returned to find several pairs of jeans missing. A review of the tapes showed who had taken the jeans. When confronted, the woman said she thought it was her dryer and her jeans. The pair was happy to get back the Levis, and now feel the laundry is “really safe”. The other customer still uses the laundry too. Now she knows she’s on “Candid Camera”. CAMERAS NAB VANDALS &THIEVES Two teens backed up their pickup next to the laundry door. They entered and began to rob money boxes. Their license plate showed up in the laundry’s tape. The teen’s parents agreed to make restitution as a condition of reducing the amount of time to be served. This laundry operator hadn’t carefully been comparing coins in to bills out at the changer. Yet, he had the sense something was wrong. Looking at security tapes, he saw a man who got change about the same time every day. He told his suspicions to the local police. They staked out the place just before the usual time, and nailed him. He was a wanted felon who had devices to milk change machines. This laundry was only one stop on a regular daily route he had been following. Now he is back in prison. In another laundry, someone stole video cameras. However, they couldn’t get at the VCR. A sheriff’s deputy who reviewed the tape with the owner recognized the thief and arrested him before he could sell the cameras. The stolen property was returned. ARE THERE OTHER USES FOR TAPES? The long time laundry owner had made a decision to sell. Through his Broker he had a qualified buyer and was in the “proof of income” phase of the deal. The sales agreement included a chance to review the books, period of joint collections plus instruction on how to run the business. He was showing the buyer the laundry’s video tape system, which included a few weeks of tape. The buyer watched though all the tapes and announced that he was satisfied that the laundry was actually doing the amount of income claimed by the seller. The tapes showed consistent crowds of customers and it’s what finally convinced the buyer to close the deal. One really professional coin laundry owner regularly reviews his VCR tapes in order to identify exactly who his really good customers are. The next time he sees them he thanks them for their business and makes a special point of telling them when it was that they were last in the laundry. It’s great psychology for two reasons. First, it creates a closer bond and greater loyalty between a laundry’s clientele and the owner. Next, it spreads the word around the local area that nothing happens in that coin laundry that the owner doesn’t know about. And with this community knowleged of the owners involvement, it helps reduce vandalism and possible cases of customer fraud. An amusing story about surveillance cameras saving the day comes from a northern California operator of a small unattended laundry. He came to his laundry to find a man in a wheelchair waiting in front of the laundry. The man claimed the door of the laundry was too small for wheelchair access, and that he was being denied his rights under the Disabilities Act. He could sue, but if he were paid $500 now, he would just go away. The owner asked for a day to think over the “offer” and went to review tapes. He saw the wheelchair bound man arrive on foot, look in, then walked in to the laundry with a tape measure. He measured the door’s width, and was seemingly happy about it. Then he walked back to his car and drove away. The owner told police about this fraud. With marked bills and an out of sight detective, at the appointed time he waited patiently, but the guy never showed. It may just have been a spur of the moment idea on his part to make a quick buck, or else he scored enough somewhere else and left town. By the way, the laundry owner checked on ADA requirements and changed the doorway to comply. Using surveillance cameras with monitors is an idea whose time has come. While a good system isn’t cheap, it isn’t expensive either. The systems are available all over the internet, yellow pages and even at big box hardware stores, When comparing costs against possible losses that camera systems help to stop, do laundry owners really have a choice?