The first day was when the organization was installing new security video cameras.

On the second day, says Jennifer Scott, manager, risk management, WSCU, the thief was much better dressed.  “He had gone shopping with the money we ”˜gave’ him,” she says.

Today, the robber is doing three years in jail, thanks in part to the credit union’s recent installation of 120 Avigilon megapixel and about 80 analogue cameras in the cash areas and vaults of the company’s 13 locations throughout B.C.’s Lower Mainland.

The credit union has, in about eight months, transformed its security system from the Dark Ages to the Space Age, figuratively speaking.

Its megapixel camera installation, which runs on Avigilon’s proprietary software, replaces an antiquated system of mostly analogue cameras and VHS tapes (although it had digital cameras at three locations) that made identifying thieves, con artists and vandals virtually impossible.

“I would get a call that there had been a robbery, a fraudulent cheque presented at the counter or a break-in, and the VHS tape would be sent to me in an overnight bag,” explains Scott. “So if it happened on a Saturday in the branch, I wouldn’t get it until Monday.”