Scary Situation... Robbed Again

[drfrightner]

Okay I know it can only go from worse to worst... this season so far has not been good. We are still going to do okay but our business like many others is down! Then it keeps raining its raining again today... I think we've had 10 or 12 inches this October. That is nuts...

Now I get robbed again and this time its pretty scary. Never been broken into ever, never had a problem until now. They say when un-employment goes up crime goes up and I guess that might be the reasons for all this.

Someone planned this robbery, they hid in my haunted house after it closed, had a car on the highway, when everyone left they grabbed what they wanted some TV's, computers and other things all the while the haunted house alarms went off. The police never came and finally we went down there and they were still in the building and they ran off.

Based on this situation we are changing everything we do. The reason I'm telling you this is because the economy is in the dumps and people will do almost anything so be carefull!

Before you close your haunt check ALL YOUR ACTORS and make sure they are all OUT! Sweep through your haunted house and make sure there is no one inside the building before locking the doors.

This could have been people with guns, this could have been worse who knows. We think it could have been our very own actors but who knows.

We are taking all sorts of extra measures to prevent this from ever happening again and expect a full article on this in the next magazine because now I'm doing all the reseach on security systems and will ramp up my existing ADT system to include new features and preventive measures to stop this from happening again.

Larry

PS: Both crimes are unrelated this time it was at the Darkness and we have footprints, and fingerprints and our cops are running them through the system. They tried to take a giant tv from our office until we showed up and they ran leaving fingerprints all over it.

[graystone]

Happened just down the road!

A haunted trail just down the road from me opened up for a local fund raiser. Last Saturday night a guy walked up to buy a ticket when she opened the money box he shoved a 70 year old woman to the ground and hauled ass! This would not happen at the Manor they would have got their ass shot! Shane and its keep an eye out everyone! Shane this time!

[Spoils]

Larry,
My Alarm went off yesterday morning! I got there before the police did. First time for this to happen. (Different story with a motion detector and mice.) Went around the building and one door was unlocked and another door open. Here is the freaky part is that there was not a forced entry. Set outside for about 15 min. and still no police. So I grab my gun and went on the search! Surprisingly nothing was taken and no one there. It did however look like someone was in the last room of the haunt which is where the two doors that were unlocked and open. They tried to take the guy off the table but I got that sucker straped down to the table! HA! I think the alarm scared them off. I am sorry you were not as lucky. And YES.....the rain is killing us. All of us in DFW area have been buying rock for our parking lot like crazy.

[shawnc]

Larry,
My Alarm went off yesterday morning! I got there before the police did. First time for this to happen. (Different story with a motion detector and mice.) Went around the building and one door was unlocked and another door open. Here is the freaky part is that there was not a forced entry. Set outside for about 15 min. and still no police. So I grab my gun and went on the search! Surprisingly nothing was taken and no one there. It did however look like someone was in the last room of the haunt which is where the two doors that were unlocked and open. They tried to take the guy off the table but I got that sucker straped down to the table! HA! I think the alarm scared them off. I am sorry you were not as lucky. And YES.....the rain is killing us. All of us in DFW area have been buying rock for our parking lot like crazy.

Scary stuff.

Bart (and everyone else): Be very careful doing what you did. Confronting someone inside could be the least of your problems. You don't want to be walking out with a gun as the police drive up. Don't asssume they know you're the good guy.

[damon carson]

Larry this is really bad! Im glad no one got hurt because it could have been worse. And that is scarier than any haunted house. There are probably more precations you should take even when you are open. More so after you close. Times are hard and some people will take desperate measures. Be careful! And I hope you find them.
Damon

[Pemjack]

Scary situation

Be thankful no one was hurt, or that your place wasn't trashed. I am looking at locations now for my 1st pro haunt in 2010, and security is one of my main concerns. Do I buy a building that's more affordable in a less desirable location, or do I pay big bucks to lease a place in a "good" area? Is there such a thing as a good area anymore? I'll look forward to future updates on the security issue Larry. Thanks, Pete.

[maliciousstudios]

Best Security ??

Best Security ?? ADT - Nahhh..... 5 Pitbulls

Feed em but dont let anyone else feed em'....

Become their Master but dont let anyone else play with them or become their Master.....



( I bet they wont get out next time )

IF THEY EVEN TRY....

END OF STORY

[Terrorknight]

Hey Larry that sucks

With us being in Philadelphia PA we have gone over the top with security. We have armed guards at the front and back doors, the guards at the front do a full body search just like when you go to a concert. We take anything that can be used as a weapon even down to pens and pencils and of course lighters . At the end of the night they follow the last group through and check to see if anyone is hiding out. To date we have had 0 problems and with this being our 9th year I think it must be working.

Robert

[drfrightner]

This is actually NOT a bad idea... never thought of that to get a guard dog to live in the haunted house. WOW that is a great idea!

I don't know if that would work or not but still a great idea.

Look I'm putting ALL OF YOU ON NOTICE... someone can be hiding in your haunt waiting for everyone to leave and bam pop out with a gun and rob you! Make sure you be careful but this is the year if any other where crime is higher than ever.

Be careful!

Yes this could have been MUCH MUCH MUCH WORSE... still we hope to catch them and now our eyes have been awoke to the reality we live in. We will check the haunts high and low before each night... we also have someone staying at the building each night now to make sure no one comes inside.

But be alert.

Larry

[robos99]

At the concert venue I used to work at our nightly closing procedure was to walk the room and make sure all the doors are securely locked (and in an 80 year old building sometimes doors looked closed that weren't) and that no one is left in the building. After hearing about what happened to you Larry, I see that being as paranoid as I was maybe wasn't such a bad idea.

[Fear Unfathomed]

See Larry, Patti bought those dogs for a reason. ;-)
I hope this gets solved soon. I still have trouble believing this happened.

[Slain]

Hate to hear about that shit Larry...
We had some kids come buy 20 minutes after we left (330am) a couple of Saturdays ago. They attempted to get in but could'nt so they threw rocks into our back parking lot and busted out some windows in a vehicle left over night...
We have them on cameras trying to get in the front door running around the back gate and trying to open a lock on the parking gate but really cant make them out too well... The police were around our building and just missed them... I wished they would get in so we can arrest these SOB's....

[Matt Marich]

Be carefull of guard dogs, they are effective but your liability goes up if they seriously injure or kill someone. That's right kiddies, the #*%@ law protects the thief before you. Follow the rules for warning signs if you go this root.

Matt

[Raycliff Manor]

Man Larry, I'm sorry to hear this. I hope they weren't able to get away with any of your stuff. It has to be difficult to search every inch of the Darkness to make sure there's no one inside at the end of the evening when the place is so huge! Although your team probably know their way around really well. If it's possible that this was an inside job, that's pretty unnerving! I hope this year's issues don't get you down too much my friend. If there is anything the Raycliff Fright Team can do to help you out, just let us know. You have a group of loyal fans out here! You've also got an industry friend and brother!

I hope your remaining nights run safely, smoothly and you encounter record breaking numbers Larry!

Kel

[kpolley]

This whole mess was a scary situation...I was the one who showed up while they were still in the building. I was ready to beat someone to death with my broken axe handle I was carrying (gotta defend yourself somehow) but they slipped out a different door while I was trying to head them off at the office.

It was most definitely an inside job. The good news is we have some pretty solid leads now and I think we will have a definite on who's responsible by this weekend. We have been working really hard grilling all of our actors and staff for information and we have found out that 3 actors were together that night, one of them drives a car that matches the one I saw, and none of them showed up the next night. In addition, one of them just lost his job and two of them didn't show up to get their paychecks and their families haven't seen them since Sunday. Seems WAY too coincidental.

Larry is absolutely right about this problem. It just never crossed my mind how easy it would be to hide in the building and get locked in which is exactly what they did. We're being incredibly careful now to never let that happen again. Everyone, if you don't already, should put a plan in place to make sure you don't make the same mistakes we did.

Here's hoping the rest of you don't have to go through this. It sucks. My heart was in my throat the whole time while I was waiting for the cops to get there. Scary stuff...