Derek Johnson, owner of All-Aboard Games, said his remote monitoring alarm system has been a “boon” since installing it last March, and Wednesday morning was no different.
Kamloops Cigar and Vape, connected to All-Aboard Games on Landsdowne Street, was broken into early Wednesday morning, but Johnson was notified by his alarm system minutes prior to the actual break in.
“If a motion is detected outside the store, glass breaks or any of those cases, I get an immediate text message telling me something has occurred,” explained Johnson.
At about 2:13 a.m., Johnson was awakened by one of those notifications.
“When I saw it was from the alarm system, I immediately opened up my app and watched the first video in the line,” said Johnson.
In the video, Johnson was able to observe two suspects approach the building and smash the window at the store.
“I didn’t even watch the whole video. As soon as I saw the smash, I turned it off and called the police,” said Johnson.
Before getting into his car to attend his business, he also called James Thomsen, owner of Kamloops Cigar and Vape, to inform him of the break-in.
“I was rudely awakened. Derek called me around 2:30 in the morning and told me I was getting broken into,” said Thomsen.
Just after noon on Wednesday, Thomsen continued to clean glass off the floor of his store where the two suspects broke into the glass door and also broke a glass case to steal tobacco, lighters, batteries and other paraphernalia costing somewhere close to three and four thousand dollars, according to Thomsen.
“I’m grateful for the camera,” said Thomsen. “The camera was a saviour and the fact that [Johnson] gets an alert immediately when something happens, it’s great," said Thomsen.
“Now we’re going to beef up our security in here. We’re going to change a couple of things in here to make it more difficult to get in, but if they do get in, we’re going to get a nice picture of you.”
The camera has come in handy a couple of other times, said Johnson, who recommends it for other business owners in the area.
“It’s what I was waiting for, but didn’t exist in Kamloops. As soon as it did I jumped on board … they’ve caught every attempted break in since then,” said Johnson.
