Alarming Stories
Alarming Stories Part 1 - Enjoy a few snippets from my book below
Alarming Stories - Crude systems
The historical intruder alarm systems were extremely crude, considering the level of risk of the sites they protected, Banks, Jewellers, Building Societies, Museums, and Art Galleries to name but a few.
The two original companies had quite different solutions to the problem. Rely-A-Bell as the name suggests was an overt solution, obvious to any would be intruder with external sounders (bells) and large obvious metal control panels by the main entrance from which the system was set/unset, they made a lot of noise attracting attention to a break in and their deterrent relied upon intruders wanting discretion.
Burgot on the other hand were covert installations, a discreet polished wooden box housed the control equipment and had a polished wooden front door locked with a key, looking for all the world like a small wall mounted drinks cabinet allied to a 'gram' essentially a record player in a locked box that dialled 999 and played the pre recorded message 'Police, Police, Police, this is a Burgot automated alarm....
The system used signalling to call the police and for many years intruders thought they were just unlucky when they had been caught in the act. Right up until the turn of the century it was not uncommon for the police to communicate “there’s a Burgot reporting from such and such premises, address etc.”.
By modern day standards, these were crude indeed.
Image copyright
https://matteofarinella.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/science-museum-comics/
Meeting the engineers
I was then assigned an engineer to work with for the first three days of the week, told to attend college on Thursday and return to the office on Friday for further instructions. With that I climbed into the car of the engineer I was to work with, and we set off to site.
The engineer I would be working with, Martin, he owned a Sunbeam Alpine. This was either a classic car or a shed, depending upon your viewpoint. I asked Martin why he was using his own car instead of driving a company vehicle. He told me that traditionally the installation engineers all used to travel by public transport, only the service engineers had company cars, he explained that the company delivered everything needed to site, engineers just carried their tools.
Service engineers on the other hand, were required to carry ladders and steps, spare parts and consumables and were required to cover call out on a rota basis twenty-four hours per day.
However, over half the installation engineers had their own transport at that time, some had cars and others had motorbikes or scooters.
Distracted driver
The following day I met up with Martin for a lift to work, whilst he drove down a leafy residential street of very posh detached houses in North Leeds, he suddenly stopped and asked, did you see that?
I replied, what, he turned his car around and we drove slowly back along the street, that he said pointing to a house. In the upstairs window was a mid-twenties blonde lady ironing, not exceptional, however she was ironing naked in the window on full view of the street.
Martin drove his car up and down the street and after about nine passes, she noticed us, Martin said “quick duck” and we both bowed down In the car, as if this would make any difference, however she then closed the curtains which meant it was time to go to work.
The first week went quickly, two more days with Martin seemed to be over in no time at all.
Entertaining the troops
The following week, Monday morning at 08:30 we were all outside the stores and could not gain access, the storeman had the key and was late arriving for work. Martin, ever the character, decided to cheer everyone up so related a story.
A cowboy was riding out in the desert in the wild west, he was alert and aware that he was crossing native Indian territory and had his rifle ready and loaded just in case. He rode through the baking sun with little provisions, his face and hands had become like leather after many years of being in the saddle, he camped out each night under the stars and shivered with the cold having little warmth from his meagre camp fire.
In the mornings he awoke to find himself cold and wet with dew, he rekindled the fire and made a cup of coffee which was so black it could have been mistaken for tar.
Another full day’s ride was ahead of him and he knew that to survive he would need to pause his journey at some point to catch fish for food, an arduous and cold task, tickling fish from the river as he had no fishing line. After ten days the scenery changed from sand and cacti to rolling plains, he was out of native territory now but still alert, the terrain was softer, there were small animals he could catch for food and plenty of water so he was more comfortable now.
Eventually he reached the end of the plain and started to travel through the foothills of the mountains, once again native lands. After another two days' travel, he was nearing his destination, he rode through trees and woodland always alert for any signs of danger, either from native Indian ambush or wild bears and mountain lions.
Eventually he reached a clearing, which was full of tepees and he was now in the native encampment, children were playing and women were working washing clothes and cooking, he felt that all eyes were on him as he rode up to the largest of the tepees and dismounted from his horse.
Just as he was about to announce his presence, a native Indian chief, resplendent in a huge feather headdress almost to the floor and wearing handmade leather clothes with hand stitched coloured beads all over them, opened the door flap, stepped out and looked sternly at him, in a gruff voice he said, you fix um bell or me take um scalp.
At this the other engineers all groaned, and the storeman arrived with the key.
Martin watched them all disappear into the stores then said to me, what a load of miserable git’s, I kept them all entertained for 20 minutes and they did not appreciate it one bit.
kidnapped
I had started to get to know the other people on the College course, mostly they were budding electricians, panel and switchgear makers, juke box installers etc. with the exception of one, Mark, a tall mid 30’s lad with scruffy hair who worked as a washing machine repair engineer and hated it.
He was there to improve his chances of getting into a better career. Mark being by far the oldest in the group would lend you to believe he was the more sensible, but you would be wrong. Mark had a wicked sense of humour and could take it to levels most never imagined.
During lunch hour he suggested that he drop me off in the centre of Leeds, drive his car around the block, and then the other guys would kidnap me to see what, if anything, the public would do.
I found myself on the street corner in the city centre by the market building, the streets were packed with people going about their business. I waited for his car, then with a screech of tyres he arrived, three lads jumped out leaving the doors open and grabbed me, wrapping me into an old carpet as I screamed for help.
A few old ladies started to point, and people looked from afar, I was dragged into the car and it screeched off before the doors were closed, they slammed shut with the acceleration, the windows were down, so I stuck my head out screaming for help.
No one reacted or came to my aid, but we all laughed uncontrollably over a pint later that lunchtime, whilst discussing the looks on the old ladies faces and considered what they would tell their friends they had witnessed that day.
Philip Wilkinson
I am currently the owner and Managing Director of a security devices distribution company. Online Security Products Limited. We offer a range of parts, everything from CCTV to Door Entry, Access Control and Intruder.
