Some thief in the Omaha area has a selection of car wash keys.

I collected my vac money from my Adams vacuums this morning and three coin boxes had little or no money in them. They have an ABUS lock on the security box and a brass pin lock holding the money box in. That means the thief had to have both keys, because nothing is damaged and he put the locks back in place afterward.

My keys are all accounted for and I am sure it wouldn't be an inside job, so that means someone has a collection of keys, probably from a car wash. They must have quite a few keys to choose from to get my combinations of locks. The boxes that still had money in them had a different combination of locks than the three that were drained.

The locks have already been changed. I have coin counters on each vacuum, so I will find out how much I'm missing. I'm sure this just started, because I audit the counters monthly and collect the money about twice a week.

If the scumbag that did this reads this forum, I am going to be up there every other night waiting for you. You just have to figure out which nights that will be.

Keith

Change the top locks too. A customer called the police on a guy using a key to the top door and a 12V vac with a crevice tool to suck the quarters out of the vault.

The cops didn't get there in time, but the customer driving home passed another wash and saw him there too, where he was arrested. He had a huge ring of keys that fit locks used by Adams, Doyle and Industrial.

Thanks for the thought, but the top locks are a different number from the cash box locks. I wouldn't know what number to change them to, because they haven't bothered the top doors. that I could tell.

I am going to buy different lock numbers for each vac. It will be a pain for me, but I'm sure that would stop them from ever getting all of them emptied at the same time. That should deter them. I am also going to empty them more often.

Are ABUS still the best disc locks to use?

Keith

Abus has two key types, one that only has a few dozen possible key numbers and a high-security version that has almost no chance of someone getting a matching key.

Is the key number to the top locks something stupid like "11?" I have keys to four or five different factory vac pin locks, so the odds are about one in three that I can open yours.

A couple of months ago I had a guy picking my Abus locks and the WB http://padlocks.com/ Pin locks on my vacuums. He never got much because we pull the money every day, but he’d come at night and we’d pull money in the mornings so he got what was in the coin box from the day before. He had the locks so well lubed up that it was almost effortless to open the locks with the key. I switched out locks to the Abus Pick proof locks and it stopped. http://carwashsuperstore.com/Images/Product/ABUS Diskus Locks/Abus_AB2070.jpg If your using the regular Abus lock they are really easy to pick.

Thanks for the links Randy. I'm wondering now if they picked my locks or if they had keys. Would they be able to close the ABUS lock back up with a pick? One of my pin locks had something stuck in it and I had to drill it.

MEP, the pin locks are Wilson Bohannon and all start with the letter A. I have four different number in stock.

Thanks again for the responses:

Keith

Keith Baker said:

MEP, the pin locks are Wilson Bohannon and all start with the letter A. I have four different number in stock.

Click to expand...

The A means the key number was assigned to JE Adams. IMO that means it's extremely likely that someone is getting in through the top and vacuuming the quarters out.

I thought at first that they were getting into coin box by removing the face plate and getting the quarters that way. . So I laid 2 quarters on the shelf inside the face plate next to the slot that they fall though into the coin box. The next time I found the coin box empty I opened the face plate and the 2 quarters were still there, undisturbed. From my understanding the round disc locks and WB locks are pretty easy to pick. Yes they can put the lock back on after thy pick it.

I see no reason to pick them when it is so easy to get a complete set of keys.

Yup, anyone who's been around car washes for long knows the key numbers are limited.

I seriously doubt someone is picking two locks to get the drawer open when 1) it's so easy to get the keys and 2) it's so much easier to go in through the top.

I got the ABUS pick proof locks today. (Great service--thanks Kleenrite!) I ordered two different numbers for the six vacuums. With the four different numbers on the WB locks, no two vacuums have the same lock combination. If they figure out one combination, the next one will be different. It will also make it a PITA to collect vac money, but I'll deal with it.

I also ordered some pin locks directly from WB for the upper doors. I don't think they will have an "A" prefix on the number and that might make them a little less available around car washes. I am going to leave a couple of tokens or quarters on the shelf and see if anything gets disturbed up above the coin box.

Thanks again for the responses.

Keith