Bad Day

[mountain man]

We got to the shop yesterday morning and found out we had been robbed. They cut the locks on the back door and then cut the locks off of the garage door (from the inside) to push out the walk behinds. Fortunately, the dumbasses unloaded the mowers, blowers, trimmers, etc. off of the trailer. If they would have looked in the truck, they would have seen the keys and could have had a 2000 F-150, a 6 month old trailer and everything else on the truck. <p>Then came stress time. I called my new insurance company and talk to one of the assistants since my agent was out yesterday. We recently switched to a bigger/better policy and I thought that this will be no big deal. The assistant proceeds to inform me that the equipment rider does not kick in until July 15. So here I am realizing I'm getting ready to eat $8,000 to $10,000 in equipment when my assistant gives me the nextel and says one of the guys has sliced up his fingers with the hedge clippers. (We had borrowed the hedge clippers because our two good pairs had been stolen a couple hours earlier.) He was about a mile from the office so I had my assistant jump in my truck and run him to the emergency room while I tried put out all the fires in the office.<p>Around 3:30 my assistant calls me and is taking him home. Fortunately, he had no tendon damage and it only took 7 stiches for the 3 fingers. At 4:00 I talk with my old insurance company and they tell me that I am insured up through July 17th as long as I pay the June premium. At 4:15 the new insurance agent calls me and says the same thing. She had seen my old policy and was saving me money by waiting till July 15 but either a. she never told me this or b. she told me and I forgot about it. <p>Needless to say I learned alot of important information and hopefully others can learn from our day.<p>1. Don't use regular pad locks. They cut through the Master locks with no problem. Use a round lock they sell at storage facilities. You can't squeeze the cutters around the lock.<p>2. Make sure you have a detailed equipment list with product numbers and serial numbers. <p>3. Make sure everything is insured properly.<p>4. On small injury claims of a couple hundred bucks or less consider self insuring so as to not run up your workers comp premiums.<p>5. Train crews on emergency procedures and what to do. (My employee was actually going to keep working had my assistant not come by and taken him to the hospital.) <p>6. Get a dog. The police told me that in 10 years patrolling the area around my shop that they have never had a robbery when the people had a guard dog.<p>7. Don't get a Rottweiler, Pit Bull, Doberman, or Husky. The insurance company will not renew your coverage if they find out. It's interesting that German Shepards are in the same classification as labs. <p>8. Even if you interchange trucks and they are kept in a garage, have a secure place to keep keys.<p>Hopefully we can add to this list so no one has to find out the hard way.

[lawrence stone]

Wow what can I say? You have quite a lot of problems compaired to my operation.<p>I broke a brake band on a 52&quot; toro and called<br>it day at noon. It's great that I have another back up 52&quot;. I just call proparts and in 2 days a new brake band will be at my door.<p>I will replace both bands on that machine and<br>keep the old one in my parts stock.<p>Good luck with the inland marine inusrance.<br>

[bdemir]

Sorry to hear such news. I would like to add that those round locks can be cut through with a cutter. I had to cut through them 2 times because of a broken key. Insurance is the best policy.

[Charles]

Sorry about your bad luck Mountainman

[Toddppm]

Well at least you'll get some nice new machines, watch out for them coming back for a return trip though when you get the new stuff!

[AGG Lawn Maintenance]

Wow what a day!!! Check into ADT alarms or some type of alarm. They keep watch 24 hours<br>call you and the police if the alarm goes off. I have it. Depending on what you plan you get it can run you about $200-$300 Installed. And about $20.00 a month. Its worth it!!! Good luck! Travis AG&G Lawn Maintenance. :)

[GrassRoots Lawn Care]

Damn man, my heart goes out to you. I still think a big gaurd dog is the best theft deterent. Our company is located in a small town, low crime so we don't deal with that much. Knock on wood of course!<p>----------<br>Mike Reynolds,<br>GrassRoots Lawn Care, Florida

[yardsmith]

sorry to hear about your loss. We got broken into last summer, but I think it was an inside job-someone had watched us pull up & lock up from a business' parking lot across the street.<br>We now use the round type locks, & I modified it by adding 4-5 washers around the bolt,so that when it's locked there's only about 1/8 to 3/16&quot; of the bolt exposed. Haven't had any problems since (knock on wood). I always give a visual sweep when pulling in or unloading at the garage to see who may be nosy nearby.<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<br>

[MOW ED]

Sorry to hear about your employee getting hurt as well as the burgulary. In readind the subject line of your post it sounded like the two could have been related, glad it wasn't. <br>I don't want to make any of it sound trivial but it could have been worse. Just imagine all the &quot;What ifs&quot;.<br>Good Luck getting back up.

[southside]

Mountain Man,<br> Sorry to here about your <br>robbery. Why don't the insurance companies<br>like those dog breeds?? It's just that I<br>have 2 Dobermans.Is it because of poor image<br>of the breed?<p>Karl<br>

[mountain man]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. One thing everyone needs to do is check their insurance poicies. Everytime I turned around they tried to nicely screw me over with the inland marine insurance. <p>I am looking to hire my next employee - a big German Shepard. The police told me the alarms were worthless in a situation like mine for a couple of reasons. 1. We don't have the warehouse wired so we use generators instead of having electric power. 2. Someone who knew what they were doing could have been in and out in under 3 minutes. The police said very often the thieves are gone before they even receive the call. 3. In our city it is a $100 fine for false alarms. The police officer said that some business have a couple false alarms a month! Ouch$$. 4. Very few people are willing to take on a guard dog - especially at night.<p>I came in yesterday and had two messages from people saying &quot;we are calling about the break in on Millerton Ave.&quot; Both were cold callers trying to sell me alarm systems. They didn't want to talk when they found out we used generators. Both guys had copies of the police report before I did! <p>Southside: My agent told me that alot of companies do not look unfavorably on dobermans and huskies. I quess some companies just look at the potential risk of attack. The main dogs that no one accepts are rottweilers and pit bulls. We have several rottweilers that we approach every week on maintenance accounts and they are alot less protective than the chows which weren't even mentioned. <p>PS: any tips on protecting a guard dog? I am scared that they may get a hold of something that hurts or kills them. We properly store our herbicides etc., but if the new dog is like my lab he will find a way to get into something he is not supposed to be in.

[AB Lawn Care]

Mountian Man-Sorry to hear about your bad day!I wonder if you had a mutt if the insurance company would complain?How about a 1/2 pitbull 1/2 chow!!!:)I know what you mean about chow's being agressive!!!!I don't know,I find the smaller the dog the more agressive they are.What about 5 poodles in your shop:)But really I would seriously look into getting a dog from the pound.We love boxers and have owned 4.We bought an old female boxer years back and not only was she the sweetest dog you ever met,she also was the best gard dog I ever had.She was 8 years old had a limp in her leg and if anyone tryed to break I would not want to see what she would do!We had someone try to break in about 5 years ago.They smashed the window out in unbolted the dead bolt but went no further!That old girl let them know why they should not step in the door!!!!We also later found out from a guy who owned her before he said that she was a trained attack dog!!!We thought that was a nice plus.As far as keeping your dog out of stuff in your shop I would buy a book on the breed that you want to buy and it will tell you if that breed is prone to getting into your stuff.90% of the time dog's get into stuff becouse they are bored or are lonely.You want to find a breed that will not get lonely.Hope this will help!Oh one more thing!Female dog's for the most part are actually more aggressive than male.Keep that in mind!Plus if you buy a female you will not have to worry about haveing a male marking his territory in your shop.If there are no tree's to pee on then he will have to resort to trimmers:)<p>----------<br>from:Adam<br>AB Lawn Care

[grasscapeinc]

You have just encounteres true SCRUBS!!!!

[mountain man]

After doing the inventory of everything, we found they also got a sulky that doesn't fit any of the mowers they stole and they got a bed edger. There is no doubt in my mind that it was another landscaper. How many other thieves would take a bed edger when there were 8-10 better, bigger, and more expensive machines right beside it?<p>Hopefully, I took care of my security problem today. I got a German Shepard that will stay over at the shop full time.

[AB Lawn Care]

Glad to hear you got that dog mountian man!Man even if that was an other landscaper he was pretty dumb for not takeing your truck and mowers!Talk about stupid!!!!!&quot;Stupid is as stupid does&quot;as gump would say:)<p>----------<br>from:Adam<br>AB Lawn Care