One of my favorite security stories concerns a bagel manufacturer in a southern city that doesn’t need to be named (yes, there are bagels made – and eaten – in the south). This was a small-scale manufacturer who began as simply a local baker and gradually began selling his bagels, pies, and other baked goods to specialty grocers.
At first he had a fairly standard industrial refrigerator in which to keep his dough chilled.
Later, as his business expanded, he built a new facility for more large-scale production, and included in the design a well insulated cold-room, where he kept not only batches of dough but also fresh fruit that he used for tarts and pies. The cold-room was essential to counter the heat of the baking room bleeding through the building.
A very precise and careful man, Mr. – let’s call him Mr. Reed, for want of a better name – always made sure that doors were kept closed, windows locked, and everything as organized as could be. He also had a morbid fear of being locked in the cold-room unable to get out; I suppose he’d watched The Shining a few times too many. So the door had no
lock or automatic closing mechanism, just a stiff, heavy chrome latch with handles inside and out. It was deliberately hung slightly askew, so that when unlatched it would swing open rather than closed.
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