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ADT: Real Life Stories
Although emergencies are uncommon, having a security system installed in your home is a great safety precaution that can reduce your risk of becoming a victim. The following real life stories reveal how ADT prevented Mike Edwards from dying in a home fire, and how ADT assisted Heather Cates with the healthy delivery of her baby.
Returning home after a typical day of work, Mike Edwards began to prepare dinner. While waiting for his food to cook, Edwards left the kitchen to rest. He fell asleep, as a fire engulfed his home – activating the heat sensor on his ADT home security system. The sensor notified an ADT dispatcher, who immediately contacted the local fire department.
As firefighters rushed to Edwards’ home, ADT alerted his wife to the situation.
Firefighters found Edwards overcome with thick smoke, lying on the ground. Nearly dead, emergency personnel struggled to resuscitate his lifeless body – with success. Although Edwards’ home was destroyed in the fire, but thanks to ADT, his live was saved.
Edwards’ fire survival story is just one of many happy endings, provided by ADT.
On a late February evening, ADT’s dispatchers received an alarm notification from Heather Cates’ ADT home security system. After alerting appropriate medical personnel to the emergency transmission, an ADT dispatcher called the Cates residence to find out why the alarm was signaled.
Nine-month pregnant Cates was going into labor.
In order to prepare the paramedics en route to her home, an ADT dispatcher solicited important information from Cates. In addition to dispatching emergency personnel, ADT provided emotional support as the mother-to-be awaited transportation to the hospital. Ensuring that Cates was stable enough to be relocated, paramedics safely transported her to the hospital.
ADT Offers Child Safety Tips
According to a leading consumer safety organization, approximately 2,000 children between 1 and 14 years of age die annually due to home accidents. More than 3 million children are injured in the home each year. Most of these incidents take place during the summer, when children are home from school and parents are at work.
"As children spend more time at home during summer break, parents should ask themselves if they are doing everything they can to keep kids safe at home," stated Anne-Marie Rouse, with ADT Security Services. "It's easy to get into vacation mode and forget about home dangers that put kids at risk."
ADT would like to remind parents that the home can be a dangerous place for children. Certain security precautions should be observed, including the following:
- Keep all lighters and matches out of reach. Extinguish candles when you leave the room or go to sleep – never leave children alone with an unattended open flame.
- Do not allow children to supervise each other while swimming or bathing. Adults must supervise children in and around water.
- Install safety locks on windows to prevent children from climbing and/or falling out of them. Teach older children how to properly use the locks during an emergency.
- Keep medications and cosmetics out of reach. Lock these items in a cabinet to prevent poisoning.
- Design an emergency escape plan, and perform regular practice drills.
- Most importantly, consider a 24-hour monitored home security system. Be sure to include smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
ADT urges parents to follow the above-mentioned safety tips. Reduce your child’s risk of injury – even death – by putting home security at the top of your summer to-do list!
"Home should be a safe haven, and we hope these safety tips will help parents create safer, happier, more secure homes for their families,” Rouse added.
ADT Secures America's Schools
For more than 130 years, ADT has led the industry in protecting our nation’s educational institutions. ADT secures more than 15,000 schools across the country, from small college campuses to entire school districts, with the most innovative security solutions on the market. ADT is a revolutionary security company, providing highly customizable security packages that include 24-hour alarm system monitoring, and potentially 24-hour video surveillance.
ADT understands that conditions – weather, environmental, safety – change. ADT is very adaptable, ensuring that all security features function regardless of changing conditions.
To encourage safe behavior in America’s schools, K-12, ADT has compiled a list of “10 Steps for Proactively Planning Your School’s Security.”
Safety tips include:
- Create a security team. Establish an alliance of security partners, and identify a common vision for your school.
- Develop and implement an annual risk assessment.
- Perform a complete risk assessment. A qualified ADT security expert can help you evaluate your school’s risk factors.
- Determine long-term and short-term security needs. Categorize your school’s needs based on results of the risk assessment. Develop a plan to address the issues.
- Create a budget to tackle areas that need improvement. Changes may cost little to nothing. Keep in mind that inaction, in the end, may be more costly than making improvements.
- Explore potential funding resources. With proof of a thorough risk assessment, your school may be eligible for federal funding.
- Include administrators, instructors, parents, students, and local law enforcement in the planning process. Involve the community in your security plan.
- Create a strategy for addressing areas of risk. Assign security roles to school personnel and other participants. Defined roles are vital to a successful security program.
- Perform routine inspections, continuously reevaluating the facility’s security.
- Schedule annual evaluations to monitor security progress, and identify areas that need improvement.
ADT Security Warns of ATM Skimming
ATM users, beware! Despite your efforts to be careful with bank account information during ATM transactions, tech-savvy criminals can still victimize you with skimmers. Instead of accosting you during a withdrawal, thieves may access your account using portable electronic devices called skimmers.
Skimmers are devices that record your private bank information. According to the Director of Strategy and Planning for Diebold Inc., Jim Pettitt, the most popular skimmer uses a 512kb memory card that can store information from approximately 3,000 bank accounts.
How does skimming work?
According to Hank Monaco, Vice President for ADT Security Services, skimming is a multi-step process. First, the criminal must attach both a skimming device, and a discrete video camera, to the ATM machine. The video camera captures the ATM user as he or she enters the PIN number. Typically, the camera is placed above the keypad. Next, the criminal waits as bank information from each ATM transaction is recorded onto the skimmer. Simultaneously, the camera records the process. The account information is time stamped, and synched with the criminal’s laptop computer.
After the criminal has recovered the skimmer and the camera, he or she can create an illicit copy of your ATM card, enter your PIN number from virtually anywhere, and empty your account.
How can you protect yourself?
- Thoroughly inspect the ATM before making a transaction.
- Cover your PIN number. Even if no one is near the ATM, cameras are surrounding you. Protect your privacy by placing one hand over the keypad as you enter the PIN number.
- Do not trust strangers. Be weary of anyone surrounding you during an ATM withdrawal. Someone offering assistance could be a potential predator.
- Check your account balance regularly. By keeping regular tabs on your balance, you can avoid liability in the case that you fall victim to skimming.
Secure Your Small Business With ADT
ADT understands that quality and affordability are important to many small business owners in search of security. ADT can help you satisfy your goals by providing a highly customized, affordable security package.
To help you identify areas of risk exposure, ADT has created a Loss Prevention Guide. With this informative guide, you can prevent loss by learning about the common risks that affect small businesses. For the ultimate in small business security, supplement your ADT security system by following these intuitive safety tips:
- Light exterior points of entry with difficult to reach, permanent fixtures
- Light the interior well enough for inside activity to be visible from outside
- Utilize a fence or a hedge
- Fences should not block visibility
- Hedges should be wide, not high, and offensive to the touch
- Safety coat vulnerable windows
- Utilize window locks that cannot be reached after breaking the glass
- Install interior motion sensors
- Utilize an alarm system to detect the opening of doors and breaking of windows
- Install a deadbolt lock on every exterior door
- Employ high-quality padlocks on overhead and receiving doors
ADT has been successful in reducing costly false alarms. Fifteen years ago, ADT initiated the telephone verification of alarm signals. With this procedure, now the industry standard, security professionals will call someone from your Emergency Call List before contacting the authorities. This practice saves time and money, by reducing the frequency of false alarms.
ADT would like to share the following small business security facts:
- Shoplifting costs businesses between $9.5 and $11 per year
- Shoplifting takes place between 380 and 440 times per year
- Property loss due to fires is approximately $8.6 billion per year
Visit www.adt.com to request your free Loss Prevention Guide.
