Post by Jerry Adjei-Yamoah

A man posed as a maintenance worker and walked into residential buildings in Manchester and Sheffield across 13 weeks. He signed his own name in the visitor book. He was caught on CCTV entering the building each time. He committed 32 burglaries before anyone put it together. Danny Burke stole designer watches, large sums of cash, a luxury bag and more from eight homes across two cities. The buildings let him in because he looked like he belonged there. That was the entire plan. This is one of the most common and consistently underestimated vulnerabilities in residential and commercial property security. A hi-vis jacket, a clipboard and a confident walk through the lobby covers a great deal of ground. People are conditioned not to challenge anyone who looks like they have a job to do. That instinct is human and understandable. It is also exploitable. • Contractor access verified against a pre-approved schedule before entry is granted • Visitor identity confirmed against a photo ID, not just a name in a book • Real time notification to a building manager or security contact when any unscheduled maintenance visit occurs • CCTV monitored actively rather than reviewed retrospectively after a crime is reported • Access logs audited regularly so patterns of repeated entry by the same individual are flagged early Burke’s name was in the sign-in book the whole time. The evidence was being generated at every visit. The system just wasn’t designed to act on it. Full story via Yorkshire Post: https://lnkd.in/evNg5748