Solid Rock Security

Everyday Superhero: Robert Bowman

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:11:16 +0000

On a recent Sunday night, Robert Bowman received a silent hold-up alarm from a food mart in Radcliff, Ky. He immediately contacted the local police who headed toward the store right away.

The police arrived at the food mart and found the store clerk bleeding from his head. Turns out two men had rushed through the front door, toward the lone clerk. He had only a split second to press the silent panic button before he was hit over the head with a gun. The robbers grabbed some money and cigarettes and took off.

The police dispatched an ambulance for the clerk, called for backup, and started searching for the armed robbers. Thanks in part to Robert’s quick response, the police nabbed the men within an hour.

After the emergency

The pair are now behind bars and have been charged with robbery, endangerment, and assault.

We were happy to hear that the store clerk suffered only minor injuries and recovered in just a few days. The owners of the store said they were super impressed with the arrest, their alarm system, and how quickly the police were dispatched.

Everyday Superhero: Kimberly Graham

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:09:32 +0000

On September 2, Kimberly Graham received a burglary alarm from a house in Michigan. Right away, she made a call to the home number … no answer … she had to leave a message. Next she called the home owner’s cell phone. He answered and said, “send the police, please!”

Kimberly followed the instruction and immediately called the police department. They were rolling to the home in no time.

After the emergency

Several minutes later, the police called us back. They had found a broken window and a suspect on the scene. The thief was quickly arrested and taken to jail.

Another criminal off the street, another customer’s property saved.

Everyday Superhero: Tara Taylor

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:13:57 +0000

On August 27, Tara Taylor received a medical alarm from a house in Tennessee. Right away, she made a call to the home number and she had to leave a message. Next she called the paramedics—she knew someone in the house needed help.

After the emergency

Tara started calling the homeowner’s emergency contact list to try and reach someone—she was unable to reach anyone. She made one last call to the home and, luckily, the homeowner’s daughter was there. She said, “I got your message and rushed right over! He’s on the floor and can’t move. He’s numb and I think he may have had a stroke.” Tara reassured her that she had already contacted the paramedics and they were on the way.

The ambulance showed up while Tara was on the phone so she ended her call knowing that the home’s owner was in good hands.

We’re always on the job!

Don’t become a victim!

admin — Mon, 23 May 2011 22:08:43 +0000

Summer is coming, and property crime is on the rise. There are several reasons not to wait another day to protect your home, family and valuables!

    Are you planning a vacation? With a monitored security system from Solid Rock Security you will have one less thing to worry about and you can focus on rest and relaxation on your vacation.

    School is letting out, will your kids be spending more time home alone? Give your kids the protection they deserve. All of our systems include emergency keys to press for Police, Fire department and for medical emergencies so your kids can get help in any situation whether they can get to their cell phones or not!

    Having insurance for your home is important, and the insurance company can usually replace most things that a criminal can steal or damage. But you still have to deal with your deductible, fighting with the insurance company over covered property, and knowing that your insurance company can’t replace your pictures, memorabilia, your memories or your knowledge that someone was in your home and your ability to feel safe there.

    The number one way to protect your home and family is with a monitored security system!

    Your deserve the best protection. Your family deserves the best protection!

    Call Solid Rock Security your locally owned security experts at 509-279-0990

Sweet interactive services!

admin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:26:36 +0000

Technology is such a great thing–I get all giddy when I see something especially futuristic. I found it particularly George Jetson when I first started learning about state-of-the-art interactive services.

Most awesome: these new technologies will allow me to control my alarm system from my iPhone (I could also be on a BlackBerry, Android or any Internet-enabled computer). I can use the cameras in my place to peek into my place and check out what’s going on in real time. I can also watch recorded video clips, get a text or e-mail when something in particular happens–like the front door staying open for too long–and even turn it on and off remotely. How cool is that?!

I’m all about this kind of interactivity with my monitored alarm system. It gives me a sense of control over my home and, dorky as it sounds, I’d like to look in on my little dog from time to time. Monitronics offers these services from three companies:

Go!Control

Alarm.com

Total Connect

Check them out and leave a comment letting me know what you think. You, too, can get all George Jetson.

Holiday Safety

admin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:25:15 +0000

‘Tis the season to be jolly . . . and safe. Don’t let an accident get in the way of your holiday happiness. Follow these tips and pay special attention this season to avoid tears throughout the New Year:

Trees

If you choose to display a live tree, choose a fresh one. The needles should be hard to pull back from the branches and if you shake the tree and needles fall off, it is not fresh. Trees that are not fresh dry out and become more of a fire-hazard.
If you choose an artificial tree, be sure that it is fire retardant.
Do not place your holiday tree near any heat source.
Your live tree should be disposed of by the second of January. The longer it is in your home, the drier it gets.

Lights

Before putting up your holiday lights, check for frays, bare spots, gaps in insulation, broken or cracked sockets, and excessive kinking or wear.
Don’t link more than three strands—you could overload the outlet.
Turn off holiday lights before leaving home or going to bed.

Decorations

Never put wrapping paper in the fireplace.
Do not use candles to decorate a tree.

Solid Rock Security wants you to be safe during the holidays, so take precaution and enjoy yourself. And, don’t forget to leave cookies out for Santa.

Monitoring Center operator saves the day

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:53:09 +0000

On Sunday, August 15, around 6 a.m., 91-year-old Luella Chamberlin from Arizona was awake and in her kitchen. As she started to prepare herself breakfast, she lost her footing and fell. It was a dire situation: she was alone, bleeding, and unable to get up. A feeling of panic began to overtake her, so she pressed the remote on her Monitronics monitored alarm system and hoped someone would help.

In our Dallas Monitoring Center, first-shift operator April Drayton had just started work when she intercepted Mrs. Chamberlin’s panic alarm. April accessed the two-way voice feature on the system and spoke with Mrs. Chamberlin, realizing immediately that an ambulance was needed. With the help of a colleague, April dispatched one within a minute.

April stayed on the line with Mrs. Chamberlin, calming and assuring her that help would soon be there. Within 10 minutes, the paramedics arrived and made a forced entry into the home. Once inside, they determined that Mrs. Chamberlin needed to be transported to a nearby hospital.

We checked in on Mrs. Chamberlin the next day–she had lost a lot of blood, but was safe and healing. “I got seven stitches in my head and I’m very weak,” she said. “[April] was so nice and polite. You don’t find them like that anymore. Thank you so much.”

Thank you, April, for your excellent work. You made a difference in a customer’s life.

Back to School Safety Tips for Kids Walking to School

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:51:43 +0000

As school starts up again around the country, morning and afternoon sidewalks are full of kids walking to and from school or to the bus stop. Even in the safest of neighborhoods, however, these short journeys can present potential dangers and disasters that can easily be avoided by following a few simple rules.

If you have a child who walks to school, follow the suggestions listed below to insure a pleasant, stress-free experience for both you and your child.

Choose a safe route for your child to walk. Avoid shortcuts through alleys, dimly lit streets, or areas that pass by abandoned houses or buildings. Once this route is established, make an agreement with your children that this is the only route they will take to school.

Walk the route with your child. Make sure your child knows the traffic rules, such as which side of the street to walk on, where to cross the street, and how to look out for traffic before crossing. Also, try to anticipate any dangers. Is there a creepy house or troublesome dog that might make them alter their route and do something unsafe? If there is, address this concern and come up with an alternative plan.

Lastly, time the route. This way you’ll know how long it should take them to walk it, and when to expect them home in the afternoons.

Find safe zones along the route. Should your child become sick, injured or threatened along the way, where can he or she go to seek refuge? Do you know people who live along the route? Is there a friendly store or business along the way? Will someone be around during the times that kids are walking to school?

Many communities have programs where stay-at-home moms, retired couples, or trusted people who are home during the day volunteer to provide a safe haven for kids should they have any trouble on the way to or from school. These volunteers often mark their houses with a sign in the front window or in the yard. See if there’s such a program in your community. If not, consider starting one.

Make sure that your child walks with a friend or group of friends. There is safety in numbers. If one of your child’s walking buddies acts up or starts behaving dangerously along the route, make sure that your child feels comfortable telling you so that you can address the situation.

Establish a “No Rides from Strangers” Rule. Make sure your child knows who he can accept rides from. Child predators can be quite conniving and may try to lure kids with candy, a story about a lost pet, a lie that they know you and that you sent them, or there might even be another child in the car. Make sure that your child knows absolutely, under no circumstances, to accept rides from strangers.

Should someone try to force them into a car, your child should scream as loudly as possible and run back up the road in the opposite direction to the nearest safe zone that you established earlier.

Have your child check-in before leaving and after getting home. Having your child check in when leaving and returning home will give both of you peace of mind and can be accomplished with a simple text or phone call. Of course, our Monitronics home security alarms can also be configured to do that for you. Contact us today if you’d like more information on this feature or any of our home security systems.

Walking to school provides children with memories that will last a life time. By following the rules and suggestions mentioned above, you can help insure that those memories will be safe and happy ones!

Some Home Security alternatives!

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:54:22 +0000

As a brief diversion we thought it’d be worthwhile to suggest some best-practices for building your home which could negate or reduce the need for an electronic security system altogether. For instance, simply building a moat around your house could reduce chances of break-ins by a factor of about 85%, according to our scientists’ estimates, and it could also be used for swimming. Introducing the “Swimming Moat” (Est. cost $275,000 to $650,000, depending on size of home):

For a more protective home-surround-system which includes aggressive, autonomous-agents (canines) which could fight off potential intruders, we recommend this feature – the “Home Perimeter Dog Run” – a raised balcony walkway that encloses the house. Naturally, you can save by allowing the family pet to double as your autonomous security agent, but we’d encourage you to only do that if your pet is a Doberman Pincher or a Pit Bull. (Est. cost $235,000)

For residential owners concerned about potential home invasions, this “Front-Swinging Trapdoor” (Est. cost $35,000) with holding cell can be built as a fake front entrance to a home. The real front door may be located elsewhere, only known to family and friends. The trapdoor functionality could be activated specifically by pressing a button if you don’t like the looks of a person ringing your doorbell, or it can be set to automatically swallow anyone who touches the door (automated swallowing functionality not available for homes in California or Utah). Persons caught with the trapdoor are kept in a holding cell until police can be notified.

Not shown in this diagram is the ample padding that lines the floor and walls of the brick-lined holding cell (padding optional in the state of Texas).

While we’ve presented these as potential cost-saving alternatives to electronic security systems and monitoring service, we note that Solid Rock Security systems could be used in combination with any of the above security features in order to be doubly secure in your home, for more information call 509-279-0990

(For even more of Steven M. Johnson’s creative security architectural inventions, see “The Enemy at the Door” at Neotorama!)

Security is protecting my children!

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:23:27 +0000

What is security: Keeping my kids safe

North Texas resident Kristine Soto started using Monitronics long before she had children, but their arrival has given new purpose to her monitored alarm system. We asked her to explain what security means to her now. These are her words.

“When we moved into our house, it already had an alarm system in place, and we chose to use Monitronics to monitor it about five years ago, almost six. We really haven’t had any problem. When I leave a window open they are quick to call!

“But that was before we had children. What is important to me is keeping my family safe from predators and burglars. I have two boys who are four and three and they’re not old enough to say no to somebody if that person comes up with candy or special treats. They don’t really know the whole ‘say no to strangers’ thing. We don’t want anybody walking into our house and the alarm keeps that from happening.

Another big concern is fire. The kids are interested in matches now because they’ve seen me light the candle and seen me put the matches away. I have had to move them from the drawer where I kept them, but what if they found the matches and took them upstairs and were playing with them? This is why it’s so important to us that our smoke detectors are monitored. It just doesn’t take long for kids to figure things out. Our alarm system keeps us safe in a lot of ways.“

Protect what matters most!