X-Message-Number: 17864
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 10:51:55 -0800
From: Hugh Hixon <>
Subject: Re: Huh? What? Hey? Huh?

 In Message #17840 
>Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2001 15:00:41 -0500 
>From: david pizer <> 
>Subject: Huh? What? Hey? Huh? 

Dave Pizer asked:

>The Alcor Cryonet report is nice to receive. But sometimes the reports are 
>sketchy as if the original details were left out. 
>
>
>Hugh Hixon said: 
>
>"I am having the second ambulance hauled away." 
>What second ambulance? 
>When did Alcor buy a second ambulance? 
>Why are you hauling it away?
>Hugh said that someone threw a rock or something through an Alcor 
>window???? This seems very serious to me. Sometimes when something like 
>this happens, the hot-heads come back and torch the place a week later. 
>How about more details, please? In these uncertain times, things like this 
>should be looked at more closely. What are you doing to protect Alcor? 


Several years ago the Chamberlains picked up a 1974 ambulance, somewhat
smaller than the '76 ambulance that supports the MARC, with the idea of
using it in a second location such as southern California.  For a number of
reasons, that and subsequent ideas didn't pan out, so it sat in the parking
lot and absorbed sun, time, and money.  Several weeks ago the parking lot
was resurfaced, so that we needed the vehicles out of it for the weekend.
The ambulance wouldn't start, so we made a quick executive decision and
scrapped it.


Re the window incident, I reported to Dr. Lemler:

A little after 2330 on 29 Oct, 2001, the window in Mathew's office was
broken.  This window is next to the front door.  From the fracture pattern,
a dimple in one of the blinds directly behind the center of the pattern, and
a conical piece of glass, it appears that the cause of the breakage was a BB
or pellet.  I screened the glass, but did not recover anything.  The impact
point was on the side of the window near the door.

I was in my office at the time, and responded immediately, but did not see
anything.  After ten minutes or so, I went outside to check the rest of the
building, and after that, scoped around with a night vision scope.  Nothing.

The Scottsdale PD was called about 3 minutes after the incident, and
eventually responded, just before midnight (911 said they'd drive around the
area first). 

We're replacing the tempered glass with laminated glass.

My casually held opinion it that somebody shot at the door and hit the
window instead, for motives unknown.

Afterword:
Talking with the window repairman, it seems that business park burglary
crews do this sort of thing to see what kind of windows they have to deal
with; they like tempered glass because it disintegrates neatly; laminated
glass is more of a problem for them.

The *modus operandi* of business park burglary crews is to punch through the
front door, snatch office equipment and checks, and depart well within the
response time of police or security (channel scanners are apparently
standard equipment).  It's a well-organized business.  For all I know, the
burglars subscribe to a security activity monitoring service.

The night ecology of business parks is fairly busy; dumpster divers, pallet
rats, auto breakins, and burglary crews, at least.  Police presence is thin,
and everyone has a business plan.  The insurance companies pay off and raise
their rates.

There is always someone at Alcor.  This is one of the reasons.  At their
last meetings, the Alcor board and the Patient Care Trust board agreed to
purchase an electronic security system.  Combined with the human presence,
this makes us a difficult and unattractive target for the parasites and
predators, who generally do not regard face-to-face confrontation as
cost-effective.  The building is sprinklered.  At least one of the staff has
a cell phone, making a second communications path.

These measures are only somewhat effective against active malice, but we've
seen no sign of either organized or disorganized antagonism over the years,
except perhaps by government agencies.  As and when we can afford it, we
intend to continue to harden Alcor, and particularly the patient storage area.

Hugh Hixon

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