The high-end Harley Davidson American motorcycles and their extensive range of accessories are often a natural target for burglars. But Protect’s fog cannons are helping to bring an end to this at Cap’s Harley-Davidson shop in Aarhus, Denmark.
Cap’s is the name of the Danish Harley-Davidson importer, with stores in Copenhagen and Aarhus. The high-powered 200-300 kg motorcycles are displayed on three levels. One end of the large store houses the accessories. And this is where the most theft-prone items are located.
“It’s not the motorbikes, but the Harley-Davidson clothing and the entire range of accessories that thieves targeted on two occasions before we installed Protect fog cannons a few years ago,” explains Alf Vatne, CEO of Cap’s Aarhus, Denmark. There have been no burglary attempts since Cap’s secured its store and workshop in Aarhus with fog cannons.
Alf Vatne notes that the store is designed so that the heavy motorbikes – each worth several hundred thousand Euros – can only be brought into and out of the store using the internal lift, which cannot be operated outside opening hours. Whereas the exclusive leather clothing bearing the Harley-Davidson logo is easy for burglars to remove and sell afterwards. There are lots of people apart from genuine Harley owners who would like to have a luxurious Harley-Davidson leather jacket, which can be priced at up to 1,100 Euros.
“If someone wants to steal something they will have to be very fast,” notes Michael Duelund, a security technician at Nokas Teknik, which was tasked with securing the entire building in Aarhus. He sees the security at Cap’s as comparable with the systems they have installed in a number of casinos, where owners and insurance companies set the highest demands.
Nokas Teknik has installed an electric fence around the entire Cap’s building. There is also full perimeter protection, with sensors at every conceivable access point and inside the workshop and throughout the whole store. If the alarm is activated, all rooms will fill with fog in a matter of seconds, making it impossible for the burglar to locate valuables and difficult to exit the room. The entire system is monitored 24/7/365 from a central alarm station. If there is a burglary attempt, the fog is activated and continues to be pumped out into the room until guards or the police arrive.
The fog cannons have been installed as point protection, with a focus on the accessories department, but covering the whole room. The same principle is also used in other sectors. Many DIY stores choose to install point protection for their expensive power tools, while many department stores do so for the exclusive scents in the perfume department. “Security fog has become known in criminal environments, so that just the information that you have installed fog cannons is enough to ensure burglars choose other targets,” explains Poul Dalsgaard, CEO of Protect.
