Ever keen to improve teen party safety, my team and I have been trying innovative solutions to the gatecrasher plague.
And boy, are we onto a winner!
Fixed cameras are proving to be a cheap, easy yet amazingly effective deterrent for unwanted guests.
Just take a look …
Holding the line
How to form an orderly Kew.
Here we have a 120-guest 18th birthday in Melbourne’s east.
The week before, my grapevine told me a notoriously violent gang was going to hit this party and cause mayhem.
So I advised the host to put the word out on Facebook that this event would be under surveillance.
We also informed Police who, as ever, were very proactive and helpful.
If you look closely, you can see me on the right telling the nice Constable that (for once!) the party was gatecrasher free.
Taking the ‘gate’ out of ‘gatecrasher’
Surprise!
Don’t be scared, this is our Brian – one of the good guys.
He’s inside the party perimeter.
Having checked the park opposite, he’s ensuring no gatecrashers hide behind the fence or burst through the gate to join him.
Imagine their surprise if they’re stupid enough to try!
This was another 18th birthday party, this time for 160 guests.
18 months earlier, an event at this address had been overrun by gatecrashers.
So we informed legitimate guests as they entered to spread the word that the external area of this venue was being recorded.
We pointed our camera at the weak spot the gatecrashers had used last time – a gate leading to a bushy park.
Problem solved!
Modern times
Both these images show the benefits of a fixed camera.
While both events fully expected gatecrashers, not a single one turned up.
Today’s teens are so wired into technology, you need only breathe a word of interest and it runs straight through their world.
If you can’t ‘afford’ professional security, at least get a camera. They cost a few hundred bucks and look like this:
Like a deer in headlights.
(But much better for the deer.)
And if you’re a wannabe gatecrasher keen to wreck an event, my expert crew and I have just one word for you:
…
SMILE!
🙂
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
