As the eighties wore on my friend Rich’s telephone business began to prosper. I stayed along for the ride and eventually became his partner. I had gone back to school nights at Rutgers to complete my degree in electrical engineering. After a while I suggested to Rich that we expand our core business to include sophisticated alarm systems. There was a growing need for more and better security systems and we had the know how to service that need. Installing and maintaining alarm systems was not a far off stretch from installing and maintaining phones. Both relied on similar wiring and power supply schemes. Our small but experienced design and installation teams could quickly adjust to the new venture. Our products were state of the art, and we began to prosper exponentially. Soon we were both driving matching BMW 530’s and living the good life, relatively at least.

One of our first products was a fairly sophisticated alarm system I helped design myself. I was extremely proud of this new product. It took advantage of the fact that most burglars do not walk in through the front door. Most burglaries of businesses involved tampering with the either the power going into the building or the alarm itself to disable it. Our new system took this fact into account. The doors of the businesses we installed the system in had special locks. These locks were kept in the unlocked state by small electromagnets powered by twelve-volt power supplies. If there were any interruption in the power supply, or any tampering with the alarm, the locks would default to their normal locked state. The only way to unlock the doors was to key in a special code, which would send current from an emergency battery power supply to an additional set of electromagnets, which would then unlock the doors. The local police would also be called automatically if the power was interrupted and the locks defaulted to their locked state. Emergency lights would come on which were powered by their own independent power supplies. In the meantime the would-be burglars were stuck inside unable to unlock the doors with the police on their way. It was a sophisticated system that integrated nicely with our advanced phone system. We had good reason to be proud.

Because of the sophistication of the design we were widely written up in various security journals. Our clientele grew and so did our fortunes. Some of our more famous clients include General Motors and IBM. We were becoming quite famous in the security field. Rich would proudly brag about our elite clientele. The one client Rich was most proud of however, was Playboy. Playboy had decided to purchase our alarm and phone systems for both the headquarters on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and the Playboy Mansion, which at that time was nearby. Rich had gone out there personally to supervise the installation. Hugh Heffner was sort of an idol to Rich, as he was to a lot of guys. Hey any guy who spends the day in a robe surrounded by beautiful women you have to admire. Rich was able to meet Heff, though briefly. He still talked about it over a year and a half later.

So, when someone at Playboy called and said they were having problems with the system, Rich wanted to go back really bad. The problem was that Rich had other obligations he was bound to contractually. The only alternative was to send me.

Sending me was the logical choice anyway. It was me who designed most of the system after all. As much as it would bother Rich to be unable to meet Heff again, the choice was obvious.

The problem was described to me as the emergency lighting coming on intermittently, for no apparent reason. I knew that if there were any voltage fluctuations in the system, the emergency lights would be triggered. I knew it was probably a defective power supply capacitor. I was sure to bring along extra power supplies and other components that may need to be replaced. So, when I arrived at O’Hare Airport in Chicago that Thursday afternoon I was prepared for anything. There was surely nothing I couldn’t handle.

A driver sent over by the Playboy people greeted me at the airport. We arrived at Playboy headquarters less than a half-hour later.

I was escorted in and greeted by Hugh Heffner’s secretary, Lois.