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Demand for private residential panic rooms escalates

20th September 2012 Print
Panic Room Concealed Under Stairs in Luxury Home

Since launch mid-2011, the Panic Room Company has been busy in discussion with the commercial and leisure shipping industries, international embassies in volatile cities and diamond dealers in South Africa, but one market that’s rapidly emerging closer to home is private property in the UK.

Steve Brook, Business Development Director for the Panic Room Company, shares his thoughts, “Whilst we always had high net worth individuals at risk from attack in mind for the Panic Room, demand from various overseas governments and industries has tended to dominate. But, the tide is turning back in favour of private property installations in the UK. Some burglars are now actually waiting for residents to be at home rather than out so they can use extortion on family members to gain easier access to valuables, personal documents and sensitive data. People have a natural instinct to do all they can to protect loved ones so are turning to the Panic Room Company for help.”

Panic Rooms are already pretty widespread amongst the super wealthy. Heath Hall, a 100 million pound mega mansion that just went on the market in London’s Hampstead, has a steel-walled dressing room off its master suite with its own toilet facilities, control panel and telephone line with wires that cannot be cut. The footballing fraternity is also a fan of the Panic Room as their extravagant homes, ostentatious supercars and designer jewellery are constantly splashed over the tabloid press. A would-be assailant only needs to grab a fixture list to figure out when the man of the house is out at work - leaving their partners, children and possessions exposed. A Panic Room becomes essential.

A new trend is a trickle down to the more ‘ordinary’ family. Steve continues, “We’ve recently worked with a semi-retired self-employed builder in his early 60s of good standing and reasonable wealth. A year previously, opportunist thugs kicked down the door of his Midlands home in the middle of the night and, with no time to alert the police, he was badly beaten in the incident. The perpetrators left with minimal valuables but he and his wife were considerably shaken by the attack. He opted to install a Panic Room, costing 45,000 pounds, in his property within easy reach of the master bedroom suite.”

“The Panic Room is fully connected via a panic button to the gentleman's alarm company,” says Steve, “Simply by pressing the button, they know that it is an incident serious enough to call the police and automatically do so. Via a monitor, the alarm company is able to see the Panic Room occupants and communicate to offer reassurance. External household security cameras can also be controlled from the Panic Room. Our client’s feeling is, had he had this safe room a year ago, they would have been able to barricade themselves in and sound the alarm before the thugs had a chance to exert physical violence. A bonus is that they have a villa in southern Spain for extended holidays so all the valuables, jewellery, small antiques and paintings go in the Panic Room while they are away. Not only are they safe from burglary but also protected in the event of fire or flood damage.”

The conclusion is that even if you install security gates, video entry and CCTV, if someone’s determined to break in, they will. All those intruders who have attacked or threatened the homes of Premiership stars such as Kuyt, Crouch, Heskey, Gerrard, in the past, have evaded extensive security systems in order to do so. You can’t eliminate 100% of risk, only upwards of 90%, which is why a Panic Room as a last resort safe haven becomes a real life saver if things get violent - as they sadly sometimes do.

About The Panic Room Company - The Panic Room is a safe last point of defence and can be specified to withstand powerful weapon attacks. The unit is portable, easily installed in half a day and can be connected to complementary security devices such as alarms and cameras. The environment is comfortable and sustainable with air filtration, back-up power, fresh water and basic toilets.

For more information, visit thepanicroomcompany.com.

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Panic Room Concealed Under Stairs in Luxury Home