Ever wonder why there aren’t more holidays in March? We have the official start of spring (March 20) and The Ides of March (March 15)—which isn’t so much a holiday as it is a stark reminder that Julius Caesar probably should have picked his friends better.
It’s the holiday in between that Americans really look forward to: St. Patrick’s Day (March 17). While it began as a religious celebration in the 17th century to commemorate the life of Saint Patrick and his role in bringing Christianity into Ireland, it’s evolved into a celebration of green beer, leprechauns and the luck of the Irish.
Speaking of luck, our blog topic this week highlights the roles that good luck and bad luck play in commercial-property burglaries. So, in honor of the first-ever St. Patrick’s Day parade, which was held in Boston in 1737, our first crime story is set in the same city, featuring a bad guy with the most iconic of Irish last names: Murphy.
The Great Super Bowl Ring Heist
In February 2008, Sean Murphy, a die-hard New England Patriots football fan and self-proclaimed master thief, watched in disbelief as the New York Giants upset his beloved Pats in Super Bowl XLII. (That means ‘42’—we’re not good at Roman numerals, either.)
As luck would have it, Murphy later discovered the name and address of the company contracted to produce the fancy rings awarded to the champions of each Super Bowl. Ironically, the company creating the rings for the New York Giants that year was located about an hour south of Boston. (Irony and Luck are frequent companions, it would seem.)
Murphy recruited two other men to assault E.A. Dion’s 30,000-square-foot, single-story warehouse, where they disabled the alarm system and cut a hole in the roof to gain entry. They got away with it, too, stealing more than $2 million in jewelry, gold and diamonds, including over two dozen New York Giants Super Bowl rings.
We’re not judging, but they probably didn’t need much luck to break into this building.
But, as the saying goes, Lady Luck can be a fickle mistress, and apparently so was Murphy’s ex-girlfriend. Four months after the burglary, the couple had a dispute that ended with his girlfriend telling the FBI the entire story we’re sharing with you, now.
Murphy eventually confessed and is now a guest of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, where he watched the Patriots lose to the Giants, yet again, in Super Bowl XLVI (That’s 46 in Roman Numerals!).
The Theft of the Mean, Green Mowing Machines
Green is the signature color of St. Patrick’s Day, making our next story a perfect thematic fit: the disappearance of many John Deere® commercial lawn mowers (y’know, because they’re green).
On a Saturday evening in 2016, an unknown number of suspects broke into a local lawn and garden warehouse in Tupelo, Mississippi. The thieves gained entry by cutting the lock on a fence gate behind the property where they stole nine commercial ZTrak™ mowers worth more than $100,000.
The biggest challenge with stealing commercial mowers is that they’re huge and heavy. Even the warehouse owner acknowledged that you’d need a one-ton cargo truck just to haul them out of there.
Try all you want, that thing’s not going in a duffle bag.
But from time to time, fortune favors the unprepared. And, as luck would have it, the mower-grabbers discovered a forklift and a 40-foot gooseneck trailer conveniently parked next to their prize.
Plus, while security cameras were present around the property, not a single of them was focused on the area surrounding the mowers. Good luck for the criminals; bad luck for the property owners and their insurance companies.
Somehow, the thieves escaped undetected and the case has yet to be solved. Probably because, unlike Sean Murphy in our first story, these guys probably had nicer girlfriends that didn’t turn them in.
The Moral of the Blog:And so, as we celebrate luck and March’s most fun holiday, we’d like to highlight a few serious points:
- Wishing for good luck is NOT an effective property-theft deterrent.
- Neither of the two property owners mentioned above was an AMAROK customer.
- 98% of our clients have experienced ZERO break-ins after installing our electrified perimeter security fences—and luck had nothing to do with it.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Be sure to share the luck —and share this blog.
The Ultimate Perimeter Solution
AMAROK is the ultimate perimeter security solution because it deters thieves, so there is no need to deal with the aftermath of a crime. AMAROK deters criminals in three ways; a shock deterrent, physical deterrent and alarm deterrent. Installing the Electric Guard Dog system is an effective way to prevent cargo theft at your business.
About AMAROK:
AMAROK™ is a full-perimeter security company based in Columbia, South Carolina, that provides commercial security services throughout the United States and Canada. Specializing in electric fencing and perimeter security systems for commercial properties, AMAROK also provides supplemental surveillance solutions, including cameras, lights, and alarms. Together, these business security services form the ultimate crime prevention solution for any business.
