Dangers Associated with Autistic Children Wandering Away is Preventable

By Tami Vigilante

My life revolves around my two children.

Like most mothers, my day starts by getting them out of bed, making sure they eat breakfast and then driving both to school – hopefully on time so they are not late for their first class. After school, the daily tasks usually consist of getting Dayne to his flag-football practice or Tatum to her dance class while balancing time with their friends and making sure homework is done. And on the weekends, along with my husband Tom, we all spend time as a family doing various activities.

Knowing how much my children are a part of my life, it broke my heart to read an Arizona Republic article earlier this summer of how a mother lost her 9-year-old boy in Mesa, Arizona. Her son, Au-Juna, was struck and killed by a truck after wandering out on the freeway.

Two hours before being killed, Au-Juna was with his two brothers and sister having fun playing in the neighborhood. When Au-Juna didn’t return with his siblings to their Mesa apartment, their aunt, who was babysitting at the time, alerted the police he was missing. Mesa police spent an hour trying to locate Au-Juna until receiving a 911 call that a child was struck and killed on the U.S. 60 freeway – five miles from his apartment.

Au-Juna had wandered away because he was autistic.

Children with autism suffer from a developmental disorder that affects their social interactions, language and behavior, causing some to wander without a typical person’s sense of fear or danger. Parents must have an aura of constant vigilance to stay a step ahead of their autistic child. That is why in 2011, “autism wandering” became an official diagnosis in the United States with its own medical code.

That hour police and Au-Juna’s family spent franticly looking for him could have had a more pleasant outcome if they had an option of locating him with a GPS device. Those options are now available for parents to locate their autistic children.

Although our company, Centralized Vision, specializes in real-time video verification services to prevent theft and vandalism, we also offer various GPS monitoring devices that could quickly locate children with autism after wandering away from their home. Along with our partners at Adiant Solutions, we offer GPS devices that could be used as a keychain, worn as a pendant or bracelet or clipped to a belt. The same devices are also being used by seniors diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, so they can be located after wandering away from their loved ones or assisted-living facilities.

Our safety-certified operators that man our call center at Centralized Vision 24 hours a day are trained to quickly locate a person wearing a GPS device. The operators are also well-versed in communicating with local law enforcement or medical personnel to quickly administer any emergency.

The GPS devices are affordable with annual or monthly service plans to give anyone associated with an autistic child peace of mind if an emergency would occur.

A parent, teacher or care giver still can’t predict when an autistic child may elope. But if a child wanders on their own, now there are options to quickly locate them while being returned to a safe environment. And hopefully a number of situations like the unfortunate one that took Au-Juna’s life can be prevented.

That’s all a mother can ask.

Tami Vigilante is Executive Vice President & Co-Founder at Centralized Vision. For more information on real-time video verification services or GPS monitoring, go to centralizedvision.com or call 855-888-8094.

 

Eye in the Sky Can Deter Metal, Air Conditioner Thefts

By Tom Vigilante, Jr.

While hot temperatures in the Phoenix area kept most of us indoors during the summer months, some local business owners were unable to keep cool after a number of crimes involving the stripping of air conditioners occurred throughout the Valley.

Recently in Peoria, a band of suspects went on top of a strip mall on Bell Road and removed the parts from 11 air conditioning units. The removal of copper pipes and wiring, backflow vales or anything else with scrap value cost the business owners thousands of dollars in repairs and lost business.

For all of the trouble they caused to others, the criminals received a couple hundred dollars for the metal on the black market.

In 2011 alone, the Phoenix Police Department reported more than 3,000 air conditioning units were dismantled, destroyed or stolen all for their metal – and especially their copper parts. Metal theft has become an epidemic since the economic downturn started in 2008. Law enforcement agencies blame the trend on a combination of the unemployed seeking items to sell for cash and drug addicts looking to finance their next score. Insurance claims arising from metal thefts rose nationwide by 81 percent during the last three years compared with the number of claims filed from 2007-08, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Local law enforcement agencies are doing their best to track down metal theft suspects and bring them to justice. Some agencies have metal theft task forces and have formed alliances with neighboring cities to stake out and deter criminals from disabling air conditioning units.

At Centralized Vision, we are a deterrent to the recent trend of air conditioning and metal thefts by offering real-time video verification services with monitoring by our team of technicians 24 hours a day. Centralized Vision technicians visually monitor our clients’ property in real time and can dispatch security or law enforcement officers to prevent a crime from occurring. Some of our clients even have one-way audio speakers near video cameras on their property so our technicians can speak to the perpetrators and let them know they are under surveillance. If a criminal does leave the property, we can immediately send video and photo images of the suspect to local law enforcement agencies for an immediate response.

Some of our clients include auto dealerships, retail centers, recycling facilities, office buildings and warehouse distribution centers, and they all have seen a decrease in suspicious activity on their properties.

I always hear from our clients about how happy they are in pro-actively investing into our services at Centralized Vision. It’s definitely a more affordable investment than losing thousands of dollars and an interruption of business if your company is a target of metal theft.

Tom Vigilante, Jr. is the President & Founder of Centralized Vision. For more information on real-time video verification services or GPS monitoring, go to centralizedvision.com or call 855-888-8094.