Climb-over protection and roof edge protection

The situation

Vandalism at schools in NRW costs several million euros every year. Almost every school is familiar with the consequences of the destructive rage of mostly juvenile offenders: they break into schools, trash teachers' and classrooms and steal valuables. It is very common for the vandals to climb onto the main roofs of schools via low roofs in front of them and go on the rampage, destroying glazing, roof domes and photovoltaic systems.
This problem was very present at Bergstadt-Gymnasium in Lüdenscheid. With about 1,050 students and around 70 teachers, it is the largest high school in the city. Again and again, there were problems with severe vandalism on the school roof, where the shed roof glazing and roof domes were scratched, sprayed or destroyed. The canopy style of construction that was common in the 1970s and 1980s made it easy for the perpetrators to get onto the actual roof of the school.

The requirement

The municipality and the school authorities aimed to put a permanent stop to the hooligans and to reduce the high repair and maintenance costs that were repeatedly incurred. A retrofitted protective measure was sought that would guarantee a reliable alarm and could be connected to the existing burglar alarm system. Every time someone climbed onto the roof, a silent alarm was to be sent to the security company in charge. The Zentrale GebäudeWirtschaft (ZGW) of the city of Lüdenscheid turned to the HAVERKAMP security experts with this special request.

The solution

After an on-site survey, extensive analysis and evaluation of the situation, HAVERKAMP advised the installation of a roof edge protection made of expanded metal with a 45° inclination at the roof edge in order to make roof climbing more difficult or to avoid it altogether. In addition, HAVERKAMP's WallGARD^® compact climbing detection system was to be installed at the upper edge of the metal sheets to reliably detect any attempt to climb over via fiber optic cable. The building authority in Lüdenscheid followed the recommendation and implemented the measure.
WallGARD^® compact is a simple to retrofit anti-climb device that reliably detects attempts to climb over and is invisible to the perpetrator. No modifications are necessary for the installation of this retrofit solution; after mounting, the system is immediately ready for operation.

Perpetrator caught

Several perpetrators were caught shortly after installation. The number of climbing attempts is now close to zero.