by admin on July 28, 2010
In November of 2007, Canadian born Gerald Blanchard stood in a Winnipeg courtroom shaking hands with police detectives; thanking them for all their efforts. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for burglary. It might seem strange that a burglar would shake the hands of the detectives responsible for his imprisonment, but Gerald Blanchard is strange breed of human being. He is gentleman, and a thief.
Described by police as one of the most gifted criminal masterminds they had ever seen, Blanchard is responsible for the execution of many high-profile, high-tech, and non-violent heists. One of the most famous is his 1998 heist of the Si-Si Star, a piece of jewellery formerly owned by the Empress of Austria. After posing as a tourist in the Schönbrunn Palace to complete his surveillance of the famous piece of jewellery, Blanchard parachuted from a small aircraft during the night and swapped the real piece with a replica purchased in the tourist shop. The Si-Si Star was only recovered after Blanchard gave police its location during his trial.
“Blanchard seemed to care very much about the people he was involved with.” said a Winnipeg police detective. “He is not of the same ilk as the criminals we normally deal with.” he added. Both Blanchard and the police detectives involved seemed to have a genuine respect for each other. Furthermore, the police were impressed by Blanchard’s abilities: “His ability to plan, his ability to surveil possible criminal targets, his knowledge of electronics… the way he carried out his business, the way he organized his own criminal organization… the various offences and crimes that he was involved in, the diversity of them, is something that we’d never seen…”.
Blanchard has attributed his success as a thief to his ability to surveil: “I just had the ability to look around me and realize where the flaws are in everything. That’s why I was so good at walking into a bank, looking around and knowing exactly where the flaws are and taking advantage of it.”
Eventually everyone makes a mistake. During a bank job, Blanchard rented a van in his own name and parked it nearby. A local business owner reported this information, and three years later it lead to Blanchard’s arrest. Gerald Blanchard’s high-tech heists, along with his suave manner and likeable personality, has made him a legend in the eyes of many.
Blanchard is currently released from prison and is beginning a career in the field of security consultation.
Photo via Mass Distraction
by admin on July 26, 2010
Many people think of high-tech security measures seen in heist movies when they think of burglar alarms. However, burglar alarms have been around for much longer than most people realize. The first burglar alarms were designed in America over 150 years ago. Hard to believe, huh?
The first burglar alarms, which appeared in the 1850s, weren’t as primitive as you might expect. These alarms ran on rather large batteries that connected individual alarm units to a large bell or gong. Since these alarms were initially designed for small shops and businesses, the arming devices for the burglar alarms were located outside the shop so they would protect stores during the night. When the alarm system was armed, opening a door or window would send an electric current from the battery to the alarm itself. Alarms of this nature were popular for many years.
However, criminals found ways to get around these systems. Since these alarms were armed from the outside, thieves and burglars could snip the wires to the alarm without even having to enter the premises. Also, as you can imagine, these alarms were only useful to businesses in shopping plazas and urban areas.
The next step in the evolution of burglar alarms was to hook a phone line to the alarm setup. This would send an electronic signal to a police station, and they could respond to the burglary themselves. Due to technical limitations of the time, this phone line had to be used solely for the burglar alarms. Likewise, it didn’t take long for criminals to cut the phone lines connected to burglar alarms.
This setup, with a few tweaks, was standard for home and small business burglar alarms until the 1990s. Digital technologies made the sensors in burglar alarms a bit more precise. A digital transmitter, still using the phone line, could send different signals to a monitoring center. This gave rise to multiple-purpose burglar alarms that would also alert a monitoring center in case of fire or other emergencies. Also, the advent of the monitoring system also created a buffer for false alarms, so the police would not report constantly to faulty alarms.
Phone line systems were later augmented with cellphone technology. Burglar alarms could now transmit signals to a monitoring center without wires, making it much harder for crooks to disable the alarms prior to breaking in. Although more complex security systems have been in development for larger institutions, these modern wireless burglar alarms are usually quite effective in deterring burglaries in residential areas.
Photo via KevinDooley
