Provident became an unintentional part of national and local media reports of the Shaughnessy shooting on Saturday night when one of our lawn signs was featured prominently in every photo and newscast. The picture to the left was not only on the cover of the Province but in the Sun, Globe & Mail and dozens of other Canadian papers.
As a result, we have fielded many media inquiries about the security services that they assumed we were providing at the home. As we explained to the Police, and the media, the sign is actually stolen. We have never provided service at that address… although we do look after most of the neighbours.
Every year, we receive a few dozen calls from clients saying that their lawn sign has been stolen from their front yard. Typically, we only learn where they have been taken when we get a call from someone complaining that their neighbour’s alarm has been ‘ringing for an hour’ and that our sign is out front. We always go and check it out, and then explain to the caller that the house is not a client and that we are not monitoring the alarm.
In a way, we are flattered that if someone is going to steal a lawn sign to put in front of their home, they choose ours… but this is the first time that one of our stolen signs has become part of a murder scene.
In terms of the incident itself, we fielded more than a dozen calls from neighbours who had heard the shots, inquiring if we knew what was going on. By Sunday morning, the calls were mostly people inquiring about increasing their own home security. The most common questions were about camera systems.
Click here for a link to a post I wrote about CCTV systems not being a deterrent.