If you got a job as an armored truck or security guard

[Loomis]

I think for a job like that they are hurting for warm bodies. You could probably get away with bending a rule here and there.

I used to know this guy that did time in prison. After getting out of prison, he had a hard time finding a job so he went to an employment agency. They found him a job. Guess what it was?

Yep! drivin around collecting money from cash machines at gas stations in an armored car. They gave him a gun to carry. They obviously never did a background check on him. He quit that job as soon as he found something else because he was afraid he would get into trouble.

I second the shotgun idea.

 

[brassdog]

I'd think you should look for another line of work. Someone here said you can make more money delivering pizza. Having worked both as a unarmed security guard and a pizza driver, I can tell you that pizza makes more money in wages and tips. Plus, the management isn't as anal about your uniform appearance and you usually can take the cancelled pizzas home for dinner or sell them yourself for a quick buck. Most restuarants usually throw the pizzas out after 30 minutes due to health regulations but they'll let you take a couple if your not too obnoxious.
As for working security, odd hours, low pay, cruddy uniforms and wierd regs concerning weapons. It all adds up to a big ZERO! Most companies know that alot of the "warm bodies" are rejects of one sort or another or they're just retired military or police looking for some extra cash in addition to their pensions. I remember asking my supervisor what I could do to get my armed gaurd card. He just laughed and said that unless you're ex-military/police that management wasn't going to train anyone since it was too expensive to justify. Since I was just earning rent money while in college I really didn't care and just chalked it up as a learning experience. Go with the pizza job!

 

[brassdog]

Oh yeah! I almost forgot, all we were allowed was company issued, Smith and Wesson revolvers with 158 LRN. Training usually consisted of 2 30 minute videos and that was it. Boy, that made you feel real comfy huh? No support, no backup and almost no training!

 

[trickyasafox]

whatever was the lightest allowed. if someone wants the money- id give it to them.

 

[Steven Proshop]

when i worked for johnny rockets a while back, the guy who would come and pick up the money carried an 8-inch .44 Magnum revolver cross-draw on his hip at 10 o'clock and a Glock on his strong side. i once asked him why this was and he said it was just as a deterrent and never really intended to use it, as if he would grab the Glock in an actual shooting. i don't really think it was really going to make a difference.

 

[woad_yurt]

What bukijin (above) said.

 

[langenc]

Id carry samples to pass out. I asked a Brinks guy last month if he had any samples-a real Sadd Sack.

Read some of the above posts-Im not even sure the guy I ran into was luke warm....

 

[Treo]

The company I work for is staffed by military retirees, college students ( most of the guards don't care for students I think it's because we're going somewhere & they're not) Women who can't get another job and mall ninja.

I do it because it pays the bills,gives me study time and I walk 8 miles a night (exercise).

As for needing warm bodies we have one guy who has been warned repeatedly for illegally carrying a gun on post but hasn't been fired because they can't replace him.

 

[robsc]

I don`t think anyone mentioned that for an armored car guard, a revolver is best.Those gun ports in the armored trucks usually are not designed to be used with an auto pistol. A revolver has a barrel with maybe an underlug. Auto pistol barrels have the slide surrounding the barrel and the frame under the barrel. Auto pistol muzzles are too big to use if the guard has to shoot through one of the gun ports. The ports are small sized with only enough height to allow a slim revolver barrel or short barreled shotgun with a small clear space above the barrel to see the sights. An auto pistol simply won`t work. It won`t fit the gun port, no room above the slide to see the sights and remember the slide must recoil back and forward while protuding into the gun port. The interior walls of armored trucks are a hardened cloth interwoven with steel fabric. Armored bullet proof. An auto pistol could easily slip out of position in the gun port while being fired and the bullet strike the side of the port or interior wall. That bullet will be richocheting on the inside of the truck which would be a disaster for the guard. Having an auto pistol is fine if you are getting out of the truck and walking into the banks/businesses to make the pickup/deliveries. A camera is your backup weapon. Photograph the bad guys from inside the armored vehicles.

 

[NG VI]

I considered going armed for the pay raise until I found out it was standard policy to fire any guard who used a gun in the line of duty.

Supremely unethical

 

[deputy tom]

I've seen some pictures of handguns carried by armored car guards and they tend to get banged up.I'd use their issue gun.However thirty some years ago I was looking at private security and was supprized at the gun they handed me in my interview.A pre-MP .38 spl. with the thumb latch and screw missing.The Lt. asked if I had ever held such a weapon,I replied " no mine all are 100%".I bowed out gracefully and never looked back.By the way he asked me if I had any physical disabilities,when I answered "no" he became quite enthusiastic toward my joining their agency.Fast forward to the last few years...I retired from my real job and applied for an armored car job.Never heard back from them but probably good for me since my old age and bladder control issues would cause difficulties for me to sit in that truck for long hours without relief.I tip my hat to those of you who have taken to this line of work.I only wished that these agencies would pay a decent wage for the task performed.YMMV.tom.

 

[sd]

carried a CZ in .40 SW for about 7 days. If you did not have your own weapon they provided a taurus revolver, 6 shot .38 spl., guards given 5 rounds, no round under the hammer. Made $9/hr.
Had well over $250,000 in truck on several occasions.
Not the job for me, I enjoyed being a corrections officer for four years better than that. What ever you carry will probably get banged up, in and out of vehicles,ect.
If guard at ATM was robbed, guy in the truck was supposed to drive off.

 

[Treo]

Supremely unethical

They don't actually say that's what will happen (obviously) but that's the general practice.

I belive the guard card class instructors exact words were

" You will never work in this field again"

I personally would get the cheapest gun I could find that would get the job done because if you ever have cause to use it you'll never see it again.

 

[MedWheeler]

I worked for Wells Fargo when I got out of LE, but only in security, while I was in school for my EMT.. I turned down an offer to go to armored courier. Didn't want any part of that. This was in the early nineties, and they were getting killed way too often down here in south Florida. Less scary to be a cop, where not quite everybody you square off against has worked out a comprehensive plan to make your wife and kids grieve.
Oh, and BrassDog.. if you're still running pizzas, you are going armed, right? More of those guys get hurt each year than AC guards. I know, I've done it off and on full and part time for more than 20 years now. It IS hard money to walk away from. Check out the discussion board at www.tipthepizzaguy.com for driver robbery and armed driver threads..

 

[TAB]

They don't actually say that's what will happen (obviously) but that's the general practice.

I belive the guard card class instructors exact words were

" You will never work in this field again"

I personally would get the cheapest gun I could find that would get the job done because if you ever have cause to use it you'll never see it again.

Can you blame them for that? There is so much liabilty there its not even funny.

 

[Treo]

Can you blame them for that? There is so much liabilty there its not even funny.

Yes in a sense I can blame them. If you ( as a corporate entity) are unwilling to accept the liability then don't get into the Armed security business.

Let me be clear, if you are 100% justified in drawing your duty weapon ( Think 27 Ninja) they will still fire and no other company will hire you.

That's why I chose not to pursue it it wasn't worth risking my liveleyhood or my life.

 

[jaholder1971]

FWIW I worked for Burns years and years ago. SOP then was if any guard drew his weapon on the job for any reason he was fired immediately afterward.

Topeka had a rash of bank robberies and Burns had contracts for armed jobsites all over town. We had one armed guard lock the front doors and draw his weapon after witnessing 2 guys carrying Glocks walking through the bank parking lot toward the bank he was posted. They tried the doors, fired a couple shots into the glass and ran. The guard took cover until the police arrived.

His boss came in 15 minutes after the cops. He asked the guard if he had pulled his weapon. The guard answered in the affirmative, the boss took his gun and fired him before the cops got his statement on paper.

Armed security companies are a misnomer.

 

[Borch]

No offense intended to anyone here who has worked in these fields before as I know there are smart, professional people in every career field and then there are the simpletons. We have a private security company here that is responsible for providing security for all of our downtown area hotels. SInce the hotels are kind of clustered in a 5 to 6 block radius there are a good number of "officers", and I use that term very loosely in this case, walking their beats all night long, every night. So recently I was also downtown and I had the occasion to really observe a few of these "officers". Based on what I saw I am definately not comfortable with these mental midgets running around fully armed in my city. My god the group of them looked like rejects form the Dungeons and Dragons table at one of the local high schools. It was definately sobering, not to mention terrifying, to realize that these guys are charged with the power to take a life in the execution of their "duties".

 

[Treo]

Which is one of the reasons I have no intention of becoming armed.

My company only has 1 or 2 armed posts that pay 14.00$ an hour ( not bad money for Co Springs) how ever if you are not permanentlyassigned to the post they stick you out there armed ( you pay for the armed license & the armed class) at 9.50$ an hour. And again if you draw your weapon regardless of justification you're done.

Cops all think securtity are wannabe cops ( they obviously haven't read any of my posts here) and they treat them like crap. Security companies opperate on the premise that you wouldn't be here if you could get another job ( my company is constantly trying to schedule me for "mandatory unpaid training" during shcool hours. ) So they treat you like crap. I can't speak for customers because I am the only person where I work, but we've all seen the "mall ninja" comments posted here.

12 months and I'm done

Based on what I saw I am definately not comfortable with these mental midgets running around fully armed in my city.

I'm pullin' a 4.0 GPA I live on the Presidents list and my toughest instructor says I have more medical knowlege than her. And as a CHP holder I walk around my city armed all the time

You were saying?

 

[armoredman]

Yikes, I must have been lucky. I had a few posers in my second outfit, (Won't count Well Fargo, EEK.), but most were quite decent hard working guys. I made $12.90 as a weekend supervisor when I left for state work. I worked 6 days a week, usually 10-14 hours a day.
That branch had a cool policy during "season", ( week before Thanksgiving, through the week after New Years), and that was - FIREPOWER on display. We mounted temp rifle racks in the driver's compartments, and hung up AKs, ARs, Mini-14s, etc. We were never bothered, even though the USE of such a weapon in a truck is almost impossible! I did it, stopped roadside in the toolies to fire a few round with the Mini-14, (company required rifle), into a dirt embankment, (young and stupid, yes), and while it easy to pull the trigger, you have ZERO idea where that bullet is going.
The trucks are built differant depending on company. Some are all steel, some are steel and Kevlar, others are more exotic. They are ALL pigs to drive.

 

[azhunter122]

Armored truck driver Glock 22 or 23. Security guards don't need guns!

 

[Crow1108]

Based on what I saw I am definately not comfortable with these mental midgets running around fully armed in my city.

That's pretty inflammatory, isn't it?

Anyway, I'd get something tough that I wouldn't mind getting dinged. I'd probably just carry my Sig (they look sexy when they're well-worn), or buy a Glock.

 

[brassdog]

In answer to the question. No! I got smart and stop doing pizza deliveries after I graduated from college. There's really no need to displace some hard working individual who really needs the cash. AFWIW, yes I was armed, just didn't let anyone. I have personally known at least 4 pizza drivers who were robbed at gunpoint and the last one was killed execution style.

Always be aware of your surroundings!!

 

[Borch]

It might be inflammatory if you are one of the specific individuals I was observing or possibly if you are a short person. However, as I stated in the opening of the post there are people who do their jobs in a smart and professional manner and then there are those who come off as idiots. I have the utmost respect for anyone out there doing their job the way it should be done and working hard to bring in some cash. The specific group of individuals I was writing about were plainly not professional and obviously not smart, and those facts shone brightly for all nearby to see. And to be completely honest I was not comfortable with their behaviors at all, especially when considering they were all carrying guns. In fact they made me uncomfortable enough to call this particular company and express my concerns to the management.

So, to all the people of significantly less than average height, I apologize for the use of the term midget. That being said, if you belong to the small group of individuals I had the opportunity to observe, please change your career to something that does not require the carry and possible use of a lethal weapon.

Thank you.

 

[rbt50]

i carried a glock 10 mm when on a route truck and when doing long hauls a glock 23 40 s&w