This blog has been updated as of 09/17/16 since its last entry in 2012.
According to the Jewelers' Security Alliance 2015 Annual Crime Report, there have been a total of $69.3 million in losses due to crimes against jewelry firms as a result of the 1,177 crimes that were committed in 2015.
The total amount of those crimes committed with which the suspect had a firearm was at 59.3% and 27.3% of the crimes resulted in violence. The most common day of theft was on a Thursday between the hours of 10:00 am-11:00 am, with Sunday's being the least common day of offense. There were 441 arrests made in 2015 of suspects who committed crimes against the jewelry industry, which basically leaves just about 736 more suspects who are still at large and capable of conducting another heist.
Incidents involving attacks on jewelry industry personnel while engaged in transporting their merchandise are occurring with more frequency and greater violence. Some of the most common perpetrators are gangs of criminals from South America commonly referred to as the South American Theft Group or South American Terrorist Group (SATG). There sole objective is to intimidate with or possibly cause serious bodily injury and even death against your sales representatives in order to obtain your company's assets.
The SATG criminals may be targeting you or your company's sales representative right now as you are reading this blog. They use tools such as GPS tracking devices in order to track your location as well as conduct surveillance's to ensure the precise time of attack. So, while you or your sales representatives are traveling you must ALWAYS assume that you are a target.
You can, however, take some aggressive steps to lessen the risk and reduce your vulnerability. First off, protect yourself by becoming educated on these gangs as well as their techniques. In addition, the use of personal protection officers or armed uniformed security officers at the front door of your establishment will greatly reduce your chance of becoming a crime victim.
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