On Friday 13th March, late in the afternoon, two mopeds pulled up outside a luxury good store in Mayfair, London. Four men wearing motorcycle helmets and carrying sledge hammers attacked the entrance door to the premises, smashing their way through the glass before directing their attention to the watch and jewellery cabinets within the prestigious store. Almost immediately, the Store Manager initiated a high speed security FOG BANDIT which in JUST 2 SECONDS projected a 6 METRE LONG blanket of visually impenetrable yet harmless fog, which screened the targeted display cabinets and forced the raiders to flee the store without any reward! The whole event, from the mopeds appearing outside the store to the raiders fleeing the scene empty handed, took less than 26 seconds.
Having been the victim of a previous raid in December 2008, with substantial stock losses, the subsequent enhancements to the store security enabled the disruption to business continuity following this second incident to be minimal, and the deterrent to future attacks to be significantly strengthened.