Fans of American Idol were shocked to hear about the break-in at Simon Cowell’s London home in December of last year.
But that didn’t have to happen. Secrecy would have solved that.
From The Mirror’s article:
It was reported at the time that £500,000 worth of Ms. Silverman’s jewelry was taken during the raid.
As Mr. Cowell found out, despite his best security efforts, a burglar was able to break in and steal valuables from his home. This is despite the wide range of security at the disposal of a celebrity, compared to most people. His strategies included security guards, cameras, and living in a prestigious neighborhood.
Yet even he wasn’t immune to the prospect of a break-in, and he left his valuables at risk. This is because he and his team hadn’t considered the two most important tenets of protection:
- Security
- Secrecy
Each one is important, but without the other it is of limited use when protecting high-value items. He had the security, but not the secrecy, as Simon Cowell said in December:
“He [the burglar] got up to the first floor and there were two doors, one to my bedroom and one to my bathroom, which leads to a dressing room where the safe was.”
(A better option – and a lot more fun, too!)
With enough time and the right tools, a safe can simply be broken into, as happened here.
The problem is that safes attract criminals. Criminals know safes are where your valuables are.
Rather than cramming his wife’s jewelry into a safe, Simon could have simply installed a secret door where the closet door was.
Starting at just $1,500, a secret door would have saved the Cowells $500,000 in stolen goods.
Instead of knowing exactly where to find valuables, the burglar would never have known where to spend his limited time.
Rather than making his wife place her jewelry in a small safe, she could have kept it in whatever room she preferred—only accessible to them—such as through a secret door to a master bedroom closet.