AED Stolen
 

Every so often we humans have an event occur that reminds us we here in the Villages do not live in a perfect world. I live in a neighborhood of 63 homes that form a cul de sac. Two years ago our neighbors developed a Automatic Emergency Defibrillator ( AED) program and purchased two AED's. trained 20 First Responders. The AED's were mounted in specially designed locked boxes, mounted on a post in concrete, and directly under a street light. Sadly two night ago a thief cut off the lock and stole one of our AED's. We are very upset that someone would steal a device solely designed to save lives. The cost to the neighborhood for this AED was $1600 and we are at a loss what the value would be to a thief.

That's terrible and one can only hope that the low life that took it is caught and is brought to justice.

They sell for several hundred on Ebay. Unfortunately.

Also happened in our Villas neighborhood last year. Lock cut and AED stolen.
That one lasted about 6 months.

There is NO justice for someone who would do something so low.

The world is full of low life. The exist in every country and every location. Lawyers make a great living defending them.

OK, our neighborhood is looking into installing these same devices, I guess we are going to install cameras also.........

response time here in the villages is so good i'm not sure this program is worth the effort ,time and expense.

I'm sorry this happened to your neighborhood. We have 5 installed in our neighborhood - I never really thought what you experienced would happen. That's a pretty sad commentary.

As a Coordinator of an AED Program with soon to be 8 AED's, here is the email sent out to coordinators just today. Hope this helps others.


Hello,
To help keep the AED’s secure, I am asking you do the following:
1. If your lock is not a hardened lock, please purchase a new lock that is hardened similar to the attached picture. I know this will cost some money for the lock and extra keys. Hopefully you have some money in your AED account to cover the cost.
2. Purchase a “paint pen” and mark your machine and box with your group name. Put the telephone number for the fire department on both the machine and box.
3. I have started marking new machines like a “billboard” for identification.
40DPF - Master #40 Stainless Steel Discus Padlock with Hardened Steel ShackleI am not endorsing this brand of lock. This style of lock is very hard to cut.
Locks are available on Amazon and are prime eligible J. [ame]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=master+lock+%2340[/ame]



Thank you for your participation in the AED groups of The Villages. It is a pleasure working with you.

John

Lt. John Longacre, B.S. EMT-P
Emergency Resource Specialist

The Villages Public Safety Department
3035 South Morse Blvd
The Villages, FL 32163
John.longacre@districtgov.org
352-205-8280 ext. 2910

Aren't they numbered where they could be identified as stolen?

Jane is there a way to get this message out to all the neighborhood leaders where AEDs are installed? This is important for all to see.

It was sent out to all AED Program Coordinators already, that's why I got it!

The Villages Public Safety Department would disagree with you 100%. They support and assist with setting up the AED programs and if asked would quickly tell you that several lives have already been saved because of neighborhood AED programs.

Hi John, I appreciate your comments. We thought we had done everything possible to prevent anyone from stealing our AED's. We had those locks, hardened steel by Master Lock and also were the weather type. The locked container was purchased thru the Public Safety Department. We have identification data on the cases but I am not sure that would prevent theft because the information would not be seen until after the AED was opened. It might it more difficult to sell the AED. It is going to be difficult for our small neighborhood to generate the funding to replace our stolen AED.