CONROE, Texas -- A former Secret Service agent-turned-gun store owner in Conroe is protecting his store with a system he believes is the first of its kind in the Houston area.
Thom Bolsch, owner of Saddle River Range on FM 1488 at Horseshoe Bend, installed the FlashFog security system after seeing the Canadian company’s product at a convention in Las Vegas.
When a break-in happens, it fills the store with dense fog, blinding strobe lights, and a piercing alarm. All of this is designed to make it harder for the criminal to find the guns and find a way out before police show up.
“The premise, of course, is if you can’t see the guns you can’t steal the guns,” Bolsch said. “And most importantly as well is you can’t even find your way out.”
Bolsch says after 25 years in the Secret Service, he’ll do whatever he can to keep his guns from falling into the hands of criminals.
“My worst nightmare would be that these guns get on the street and they’re used to shoot or harm anybody, but especially a law enforcement officer,” said Bolsch, who retired from the Secret Service in 2014. “That would really be something that I couldn’t live with.”
The Flash Fog Security system is part of more than $200,000 worth of security measures Bolsch built into his store from the ground up, including steel and concrete walls, armored glass, security gates, alarms, motion detectors, and 61 cameras inside and outside.
Bolsch says since Saddle River Range opened in November 2015, no one has tried to break in.
