The After-Hours Alarm at the Warehouse
You are on a night patrol at an industrial park. At 03:10 you receive a call: a rear door alarm at Warehouse 7, a building you patrol but do not enter alone per post orders. As you drive toward it you see a white van parked near the loading dock with its rear doors open and no one visible. The building is dark except for a faint light near the dock. Post orders say: 'Do not enter the building. Observe and report. Call police for any sign of forced entry.' Your radio has patchy coverage in this area.
1. Walk through your actions from arrival, explaining what you observe and what you deliberately avoid.
Read the worked answer
On approach:
- Park away from the van, lights off, so you are not silhouetted and do not block the van's exit.
- Note the van's plate, make, and condition before getting close.
- Look for forced entry at the dock door: damaged frame, pry marks, glass, fresh scuffing.
Observe and report:
- Call police from a position of cover with a clear line of sight - do not walk up to the open dock.
- Report: alarm time, van description and plate, signs of entry, whether anyone is visible, your location.
Deliberately avoid:
- Do not enter the building - post orders forbid it and an unarmed guard alone inside a dark warehouse is a liability, not an asset.
- Do not approach the van or confront anyone.
- Do not touch the door, the van, or anything that could hold evidence or fingerprints.
Reasoning: The post order exists because the guard's role is detection and reporting, not confrontation. You are the sensor, not the response.
2. Your radio fails to reach the control room. What is your fallback, and how do you document the incident?
Read the worked answer
Fallback, in order:
- Move to a known radio-clear spot (often higher ground or near the main gate) and retry - but only if it does not take you away from observation.
- Call police on your phone directly with the details. Do not delay the call to fix the radio.
- Notify the control room by phone or, if safe, the on-site supervisor.
Documentation:
- Time of alarm, time you arrived, time police were called, time police arrived.
- Exact observations: van plate, door condition, light, sounds.
- What you did not do and why (did not enter per post orders).
- Radio failure - note it, because it is a system problem the client needs to fix.
Reasoning: A guard who freezes because the radio is dead has failed the post. The report should let a reader reconstruct the timeline without you in the room, and the radio failure should be flagged as a safety issue, not buried.