Residents take stock of $40 lock

 
A $40 PADLOCK is being snapped up across Adelaide following the murder of a Seacliff grandmother.
 
Sales of the ETSA Utilities-approved padlock, which is used to secure household meter boxes, have jumped dramatically in recent months, since Ms Redman's meter box was tampered with - and her power cut - on the day she died.
 
More than a dozen suburban locksmiths have confirmed to the Sunday Mail significant increases in the sale of the ETSA padlocks, with one company saying it had gone from selling just one a month, to 80 in the past two months.
 
Security companies also report a spike in demand for household security and personal emergency systems.
 
Most locksmiths said they believed the demand was a direct reaction to Ms Redman's murder at home, in January. Police said they believed Ms Redman's murderer tampered with her meter box, cutting power to her house, before the grandmother was left bashed and stabbed in her backyard on Australia Day.
 
Port Locksmiths manager Steven Holmes said his company had sold about 50 of the ETSA padlocks in the past two months compared with just two in the previous two months.
 
Mr Holmes said he had never seen sales of the padlocks, which have been available since November 1987, like this before.
 
"There has always been a small demand, but it definitely spiked after that (Ms Redman's murder) became knowledge," he said. "It's always been in the back of (people's) minds, especially those who have security systems and don't want the power switched off even though they have a battery back-up," he said.
 
Southern Locksmiths' Tom Edge said ETSA padlock sales were 10 times higher than usual, with sometimes up to five padlocks fitted in a day.
 
Magill Locksmiths' Maxine Gibbs said she had so many calls from customers wanting the locks that she had to put some customers on hold.
 
"I had three people ring up as soon as they heard it (details of the meter box tampering) on the radio," he said.
 
Seacliff Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator Gayle Germann said many local residents had inquired about the padlocks at a recent meeting.
 
"People are a lot more aware (about home security) than maybe they were before," she said.
 
RAA secure services senior manager Neil McLean said: "In the past two to three months we have seen quite a marked increase in security alarm burglar systems.
 
"It appears the community is (now) more concerned about personal security," he said.
 
When the Sunday Mail visited Yacca Rd this week, several residents said they had upgraded their security systems in the wake of Ms Redman's death.
 
Adelaide Security Services managing director Angelo Demasi said people with elderly parents wanted the peace of mind of a security monitoring system as much as the seniors themselves did.
 
Mr Demasi said sales had increased about 20 per cent in the past six months as the number of break-ins for jewellery and cash had increased - an SA Police annual report showed a 5.8 per cent increase in serious criminal trespass in the 2009-10 financial year.