Even though this summer has had quite a string of apprehensions, you may not realize just how busy the operators in the Verification Center are. They coordinate with installation technicians, answer customer service questions, reset systems, perform operation tests, and much more—and they put everything on hold when they receive a serious alert at a site we protect. Operators sometimes dispatch police or guard services to sites that don’t end in apprehensions. Suspects may have fled the scene, or other factors may have been at play to make it seem to the operator that suspicious activity was taking place.

When operator Joe Orsborn left his shift on the morning of August 19, he knew he had dispatched police to HD Loft Studios in Portland after hearing movement, but never got a report from police that an apprehension had occurred. It seemed like it had turned out to be a false alarm (want to know why our false alarm rate is SO low?)

After discussing the incident with the studio’s owner, a Portland customer service representative got the full story—police had arrived onsite and found a man inside the studio. Asleep. The man was drunk and seemed to pick HD Loft Studios at random as a good place to sleep himself sober. Police arrested him for intruding.

Joe now knows that his actions, while routine at the time, did make a big difference for the customer. We count this one as apprehended individual number 108!