David Gletty: Investigative Report on 5 Star Resort Security/Safety Failings


Investigative Field Report by: Investigator David Gletty

Attention: Becky ******, CBCP

Business Continuity

Risk Management Service, LLC

2100 West ******* River Road

Fort Lauderdale, FL  33309

(P) 561-443-****

(C) 954-520-****

Property Location: The ********** Resort

1500 ********* Dr.

Orlando, FL. 32821

Resort (407)905-****

Breakdown of possible safety concerns, liability concerns, theft concerns and employee issues:

1.      Building 10:

·         Behind the front counter is the front desk office where money is stored in a safe and other important documents are stored along with some operational activities taking place day to day. There are only 2 ways into the office, a panel door behind the counter or a magnetic lock door on the north side of the counter. This door should always be locked and can only be opened with a soft card. On 8 different occasions I noticed the magnetic lock door was never locked. This is important because of the money that is being transferred to the safe from the front counter. This is a medium crime area and a trained criminal eye would see an easy target.

·         Uninvited guest can park in the front of building 10 or park down the street and walk right into the resort and use the pool facilities at Wakoola pool or the Clubhouse pool or even commit crimes against guest. I noticed this several times and when I brought concern to another officer I was advised that we could not approach anyone that may be using facilities without permission because it could be looked at as profiling and could get B*** Green and B**** Group in trouble. Unless we had undisputable evidence then we were to let it go.

·         While on patrol I was able to access the roof through an unlocked roof access door at the top of the west end stairs. Walked the entire roof and had a birds eye view of most of the resort. It would be a good spot for a multi-functional surveillance camera, but nobody should be up there except for repairs and the door should always be locked.

2.      Building 2:

·         Needs a safety rail check on every floor.

·         Shrubs need to be trimmed away from the back of the building so that the vision of the officers will not be blocked and they can plainly see the back patios of the ground floor units.

·         Anthony ***** (s/o manager) put on a good fire drill exercise for this building, for the pm shift of employees.

3.      Building 3 Through Building 8 have the same Issues:

·         Needs a safety rail check on every floor.

·         Shrubs need to be trimmed away from the back of the building so that the vision of the officers will not be blocked and they can plainly see the back patios of the ground floor units.

9.      Clubhouse:

·         Several locks and doors are broken on the N/W side of the building on the first floor on the backside where the pool deck leads into the building. All these doors are supposed to be shut and locked to keep guest out of the building after 11 pm.

·         On the same side of the building as mentioned above, the white fence gate ,that keeps guest out of the pool after 11 pm, is broken in a manner that allows guest to walk through the gate to enter the pool after it is closed..

·          A door that leads into the new workout room on the first floor, under construction and dangerous, is never locked during hours of operation, anyone can walk in and get hurt.

·         Many locked double doors that lead into an electrical room or storage room can easily be opened by pulling them open at the same time.

·          Stair exit door on N/W side of building is unlocked and on 2 occasions I was able to enter the stairwell, climb the stairs to the 3rd floor, sales, and enter the sales floor after 11pm. On 1 occasion the door to the computer room was unlocked and I was able to enter the records room.

·         Some of the key holes in the elevators are broken, they just keep turning while you are trying to turn off elevators or emergency controls.

·         Some of the surveillance cameras need to be adjusted and a few more added.

·         The metal pull down security door in the gift shop is broken and is never locked. Anyone can enter through the kitchen, behind the bar and into the gift shop after they are closed.

·         Some officers showed me how to get food from the kitchen and food from the 3rd floor sales center refrigerator, drinks also. Without permission.

10.  Preview Center:

·         No surveillance cameras.

·         Some officers showed me where to get soft drinks and food from the preview center.

11.  Operations:

            Dispatch room:

·         My first day on the post I was trained in the dispatch/lost and found room. Cindy ****** works the position 40 hours a week and they needed 2 officers to fill in the other 3 days a week while another person was found to take the other 3 days on a permanent basis. While in there the first day I was able to learn the system very quickly and noticed how sensitive the position is. While in the room you have access to all the keys of the resort, files and dvd disc of photos and names of all employees that work at the resort, access to the safe and valuable property, credit card numbers of some guest and etc; I was alone in the room for 10 hours on my 3rd day on the post and then another 2 days by myself. 

A creative criminal mind could easily create a plan to steal information and property from the resort by manipulating the system that is in place. Example: “The Ring”. While doing a security audit of the safe I was able to see what lost valuable properties are stored in the safe. Items like phones, stock owner certificates, wallets with money and jewelry, most notably a gold ring with 3 large diamonds. It appeared to be real and worth between $2500 and $4500. Because of the limited documentation on the items, only a description on the computer with no photo’s, a criminal employee could steal the original ring and replace it with one that looked similar, but fake. There would be no documents that would have to be changed. This could be done with any of the valuable property in the room. The point that I am trying to make is that there should be a surveillance camera inside the dispatch/lost and found room and there should not be so many people that have access to the room without another person present. The system can be worked by a few employees that work together for criminal purposes.

·         I used another employees password to get into certain programs and documents. Guest credit card numbers, incident and accident reports, etc;

·         Safe access code while inserting and turning the key C31324190#

·         Unit safe that guest use in each room access code override #super 111111 or 999999 or 087020 all 3 will work.

12.  Back Gate:

·         Wide open to unwanted pedestrians and bicyclist.

·         Only surveillance cameras are a small one inside of the entry box and one on a pole that has limited vision and is not always monitored by officers in the security house. 

13.  Security House:

·         Un-professional language among some security staff with managers present.

·         Conversations of a sexual manner about female guest young and old and on several occasions sexual talk was about female guest under the age of 18. More detail if requested.

·         If the client is paying for 24 hour security they have a reasonable expectation that there will be limited crime on the post. On one occasion during the first week of November 2010 there were several used a/c units stolen off of the post within plain sight of the guard house. The suspect was caught the next day while returning for more units and was given the choice of being arrested or bringing back the units that he stole. He brought back the units and was trespassed from the property. It takes awhile to load those a/c units and it cannot be done quietly. There are other examples, which are located below, of crimes that can be prevented.

·         Some officers have become complacent with the routine and do not try to be more professional or more active. Most of the security personnel work 2 jobs and really do not care about what happens while they are on the post, they are there for a check. I have heard this from several officers. Some officers have learned how to manipulate the system so that it appears that everything is under control, but when disaster strikes it will be the guest and resort that pay the price.

·         Security Officer master key ring containing about 15 main keys has several damaged keys on the ring, some cracked and twisted. Some officers use the keys as a screw driver when locking some doors and other uses. During an emergency it would be costly if an important key broke when it was needed to work.

·         While writing reports about incidents or accidents some officers, with managers present, will not give the guest the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes even using foul language to describe how they feel about the situation, guest and all the documents that have to be filled out.

·         Some officers do not have all the proper equipment while on shift, flashlight, sterile gloves, note pad and pen, shorts instead of pants. I was able to wear shorts instead of pants after 2 days on the post.

·         I went 6 days without a name tag and was never given the full new officer training program the entire time out there, also was never given an email account so that I could fill out my own reports. I had to write the report on paper and on the computer under another officer’s name.

·         While on duty I had free rein to go wherever on property that I chose without any supervision.

·         Officers get away with making a lot of personal calls on their cell phone, surfing the internet and speaking with employees that work for the resort, employees that they may be attracted to. They know where to hide out of the surveillance cameras view.  

14.  Security Personnel: Will not comment on individually unless requested.

·         Paw ********** Resort Security Manager

·         Anthony *** Manager

·         Freddie ******* Manager

·         Jose ********** S/O

·         Brandon ********* S/O

·         Dewayne ********* S/O

·         Matt ******* S/O

·         Don ******* S/O

·         John ****** S/O

·         Hector ******** S/O

·         Richie  *** S/O

·         Steve  ******* S/O

·         Allen ***** S/O

·         Vic ****** Field Supervisor.

15.  Golf Carts:

·         While on the post I never saw anyone check the tires, oil, fuel, lights, etc.

·         Golf Carts are abused and beat up.

·         Blue Green claims to be green, but still uses gas powered golf carts. Bicycles would be the best fit at the resort and golf carts could be used only during an emergency. Bicycles have less maintenance and the officers will be in better shape.

16.  Theft: With the proper patrol routines these types of crimes can be diminished.

·         Sat. 10/23/10. The guest in unit #5701 had the lock in the driver side door popped in by someone trying to break into his car. They could not get in.

·         Mon. 10/25/10. Units #6105, #6106 and #6107 had their back patio screens slashed, while the guest were at the attractions, and someone was able to enter one of the units and steal some items and cash. This is what the guest say happened. I was there and took one of the reports and could not detect any kind of deception from the guest. I noticed that the patio screens were hidden from plain view because of shrubs and all the screens were cut in the same fashion and same hole design, a horseshoe. After the sheriff had arrived and made their report, some of the security officers and managers were already saying that it was a scam by the guest before any type of precautionary steps were taken, to search and secure the resort, or any type of investigation was conducted. There were no real precautionary steps taken, except a few running around like chickens with their heads cut-off for about an hour. On this night we were short handed by 2 officers that called in sick and there were no security managers on the post at the time. For the safety of the guest there are certain steps that should be taken regardless of what the possibilities may be.

·         Several electronic docking stations/radio/clock’s were taken from some of the units. There is no real way to determine who took the devices, guest or employee, but most of the time it is both guest and employee that steals from the resort. I have seen creative ways that employees can steal property from the resort. More detail if requested. 

17.  Miscellaneous Safety and Security Concerns:

·         Perimeter chain link fence has several breaches in it around the resort property.

·         Surveillance cameras are not always monitored by officers, yes they are on the video screen in the guard house and yes there is always an officer present, but rarely did I actually see someone observe the video screens in detail.

·         Pools should have more caution and slippery when wet signs.

·         Resort needs more security cameras and existing ones need to be adjusted. S/O Bell wrote a great report about the existing cameras and their issues. The report was turned into his superiors.

·         More security lights need to be placed in the center of the resort and around the perimeter fence, most notably at the back of the resort behind the operations building.

This should be enough to get you started. From my experience I believe that this resort needs a thorough safety and security check, unannounced of course.

After being on the same post for a long period of time it seems to naturally relax people from the level of enthusiasm that they had when they first started at the post. This includes the client, managers, supervisors and officers.
In some cases it seems like the managers and officers are overwhelmed with the duties some times.
Headquarters, regional managers, managers, supervisors and employees are separated by to many layers  and that it allows liabilities to enter and linger around the resort and occasionally clients and guest are harmed by said liabilities.

Thank you for letting DGI serve your needs.
Investigator David Gletty