0
April 1993
ment that looks like Fort Knox
on their premises. Using
hasps of this nature can hinder
you if you have a mix of loca-
tions that encompasses both
ends of the spectrum. It makes
rotation very difficult, and be-
sides, your games are still not
very secure, I'm saving the
best for last and will explain it
a little later.
HASP QUALITY
Do not select a hasp whose
ingenuity centers around pro-
tecting the shackle of your
padlocks. We have already de-
cided on padlocks that protect
themselves. We need to pro-
tect the cash box, not the pad-
lock.
Be extremely careful when us-
ing hasps made of tempered
steel or pot metal. Tempered
steel is good only if the heating
process is carefully controlled
yielding a product that is uni-
form and not "hit and miss".
The tempered metal that I
have come in contact with has
been hit and miss.
WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN?
If you have any hasps that
were tempered (they usually
do this after the hasp is
punched and bent to the de-
sired shape) on any of your
machines get a piece of pipe or
some other piece of metal and
hit it a sharp blow one time.
The ones that were "miss" will
shatter like glass. You will
have a harder time with the
ones that were "hit". The fa-
mous "J" hasp is a good ex-
ample of this -once again, de-
signed to protect the padlock
more that the game.
Keep in mind that we are try-
ing to protect our machines
from break-ins during busi-
ness hours. Unfortunately,
there is not much we can do if
a night-time break-in occurs.
Some people take the attitude
that they would prefer for the
thieves to take the money
rather than damage their
games. My answer to that, at
least in my experience, is that
night-time break-ins occur
much less frequently than the
ones during business hours.
Remember, the thieves that
wreck your games can only rob
you once. A good thief would
expect you to replace your bro-
ken hasps and padlocks with
more junk that is easy to get
into and they will return as
long as the game is working.
I recently had a case where the
premises were illegally en-
tered after business hours
and, thank to hasps I currently
use, I had three damaged
games and no money stolen.
The location had 24 machines
and had it been easy to break
into them, they would have
gotten them all. Instead, time
ran out and they gave up.
STAR*TECH Journal
good old standard bar with a
huge eyebolt that can't be cut.
Today a wide variety of high
speed battery-operated drills
and even ratchet wrenches
along with a multitude of at-
tachments are available at
very reasonable prices from
just about anywhere. In the
case of a video game, all one
has to do is enter the game
from the top door, the control
panel, or the back door and
with the right attachment, the
nut is removed in about three
seconds. The cash door can
now be opened and then closed
to look like·nothing happened,
and unless someone tugs on
the bar, no one will notice, and
you can be sure that our guy
will be back to make more col-
lections.
DRAWBACKS
I even heard of a case that on
one particular model the air
vent was removed and a long
extension used. In other
words, they did not even have
to enter the game. Putting sili-
cone glue or some other gook
on the thread helps but it only
slows them down.
The biggest drawback to any
hasp (and I don't care how im-
pressive and elaborate it ap-
pears to be) is the fact that
they are installed with nuts
and bolts. Let's start with the
Here's a good one that hap-
pened to me: After gaining en-
try through the back door and
unscrewing the nuts on an in-
ferior hasp, they took the keys