Walking up towards the office today, I noticed a broken window. After all this is the violent, criminal haven of Richmond. But next to the broken window was a rather apt advert for broken glass services. Take a look yourself.

Now it’s time to put on the detective hat and figure out what happened here. Firstly we’re drawn to the “police” sign on the poster:

So hang on a minute, did the police put this here? It is a free number after all. But then…surely the police would be here dusting for prints, asking local residents and office workers for witness statements and investigating the surroundings. Right? I don’t think the latest police response is to just put stickers around crime scenes. Imagine seeing a corpse with a sticker saying “dead body” on it.

Anyway. It’s not the police. We know that. How do we know that. Because we Googled the phone number and found out that it belongs to All Glazing UK, a “friendly local glazing division” based in Kenley.

So now to take a look into the guerilla marketing done by All Glazing UK. Perhaps one of their members was out on a call, was passing by and saw the broken window. What better opportunity for them to slap on a sticker next to it, reminding all of those who walk by, that they will be there, 24/7 for glass repairs and they have some mysterious link with the authorities.

It makes sense. Why bother walking into the building and offering their services, when they can send out a visual message to a wider audience. But was it just a coincidence? Was it just an All Glazing UK member passing by and by chance saw the broken window?

We don’t want to think it, but we all are…did they…break the window? The economy has been in turmoil the last few years and businesses are struggling. Could they be doing the window smash and sticker slap technique in order to garner more business? We hope not.

According to their website they are Emergency Glazing, Boarding Up and Double Glazing specialists in a variety of areas, but Richmond is not on the list. Perhaps they have scouts roaming areas of which they don’t cover, stickers in hand, waiting for a viable opportunity to market themselves. Or maybe the Glass Mafia do have the police on their side, and these are really are police issue stickers.

What we do know is that by placing the sticker they have got our interest. But with no company name and just the phone number and vague link to the police, it doesn’t encourage anyone to look them up (excluding me) and makes them seem cheap and lazy.

Hopefully the sticker won’t leave that annoying residue that stickers leave when they don’t peel off properly. You’d have thought that a company that specialises in removing tricky stickers, would place an ad nearby…