Coin boxes at car washes are a popular target for thieves. Not only are they easy to spot, but thieves know where most of the money is going to be. How can you stop car wash coin box theft?
Several brands of coin boxes are vulnerable to the thief using a speaker or other large magnet which gets rubbed up and down on the faceplate by the coin mechanism. Each pass adds a quarter in credit magnet which tricks the coin box into sending a pulse like it accepted a coin. If you see scratches on the face of your coin boxes it means you are probably losing money.
A popular recommendation is to add a magnetic switch on the coin box and/or timer to turn it off if a magnet is near, but doesn’t reliability fix it. The only way to fix the problem is to change or upgrade the coin boxes.
Another problem you will face is that there are currently only a few combinations of keys for coin boxes especially for the vacuums. Apparently they are only 1-2 different types of keys that will fit most all service doors. The best solution is to leave no lock unprotected, even the ones on vacuum clean out doors, certainly all the ones on coin boxes, face plates, vendors. Either have a security device fabricated or use a high security lock from companies such as Medeco, Abus or Buffo.
Pinhole cameras provide security in coin changers and are pretty simple to install. Simply drill a hole in the steel (approximately an 18/32 drill bit for most cameras) which will hold the camera to help you identify thieves and stop car wash coin box theft.
