In the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s shock assassination in Manhattan, the high-end security business has been booming.
The December shooting shook America – showing that ultra-wealthy executives are not immune to violence on the streets and sparking fears about copycat killings.
Health industry heavyweights, executives and politicians across the country from New York to California are scrambling to secure their homes with infrared robotic cameras, bulletproof glass and secret doors to safe rooms.
Jon and Eva Michelle Harris own Fortified Estate, a Texas-based firm which fits properties with interior ‘armor’ designed to complement the existing aesthetics in any home – from a glass-walled Florida mansion to a Victorian-style Hamptons estate.
The security power couple said they have seen a rise in client inquiries of about 50 percent since Luigi Mangione is alleged to have gunned down Thompson on December 4.
‘There has been an uptick in calls [from potential clients] since the CEO shooting,’ Eva told DailyMail.com this week.
‘Usually when we see an increase, it’s because there have been break-ins in a neighborhood, but sometimes there’s a correlation between what’s going on in the news.’
‘We definitely have got more direct clients – as well as designers incorporating safe spaces into their plans,’ Jon added.
In the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s shock assassination in Manhattan, the high-end security business has been booming. The owners of Fortified Estates, which supplies the ultra-wealthy with property ‘armor’, said they have seen a 50 percent increase in calls
Pictured: Fortified Estate employees demonstrate the impenetrability of a door fitting
Jon and Eva Michelle Harris (both pictured above) own Fortified Estate, a Texas-based firm which retrofits properties with interior ‘armor’ designed to complement the existing aesthetics in any home – from a glass-walled Florida mansion to a Victorian-style Hamptons estate
On average, Fortified Estate works on around 30 projects per month – ranging from $9,000 bulletproof door fittings to a multi-million-dollar mansion retrofit.
The secure doors are their most popular feature, and the latest flood of clients have also been requesting concealed exits, Eva said.
Fortified Estate creates fittings which complement existing aesthetics
‘It would look like a cabinet, but it’s really a door that leads into another room,’ she explained.
‘An intruder wouldn’t know that there’s another room – but also as somebody living in the home itself, you don’t want to feel like you are living in a bank vault or a prison.’
Fortified specializes in subtlety, with the safety features designed to blend in with a range of interiors. ‘We match the aesthetics that already exist,’ Eva said. ‘It’s very custom.’
The company, founded by Jon in 2018, also saw a marked increase in demand during and after seismic events including the 2021 storming of the Capitol, the October 7th Hamas attack in Israel, and this year’s US presidential election.
Last year’s Hamas incursion sparked the biggest surge, with about 10 times the usual amount of business flooding in. This was mostly from synagogues and members of the Jewish community who felt threatened by the rise in anti-Semitism across the US.
Fortified typically supplies to residences of CEOs and political figures, along with the entrances to embassies, major Fortune Global 500 companies, state courthouses and police stations, and even Department of Homeland Security agency buildings.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down at point-blank range on December 4
The company integrates panic or safe rooms into many of the homes – a secret space designed to blend in with a bedroom or closet, which come with access to a designated security specialist available via phone or text.
Many clients also opt to install infrared robotic cameras into their second homes, allowing them to keep an eagle eye on their palatial estates even from a yacht in the Mediterranean.
Pictured: An intricate handle by Fortified
Meanwhile, ballistic panels can be fitted beneath wood-paneled walls as an extra layer of protection, complete with security doors and openable bulletproof windows.
Clients also commission Fortified to install gun safe rooms – a protective vault for storing weapons, art, currency, and other valuables.
The rooms are ‘hardened against fires, storms and all manners of human attack,’ according to Fortified’s website.
The rise in demand for high-end home security services comes amid calls for violence against corporate bosses by cult-like fans of accused killer Mangione, who police said was found with a manifesto expressing ‘ill-will toward corporate America’.
Alarming ‘wanted’ posters showing top healthcare executives were plastered across New York City in the days following the assassination.
The menacing signs were spotted on Canal Street – one of Manhattan’s busiest thoroughfares – flanked with the red and black words: ‘Wanted. Denying medical care for corporate profit. Health care CEOs should not feel safe.’
Fortified retrofits properties with ‘armor’ designed to complement the existing aesthetics in any home – from a glass-walled Florida mansion to a Victorian-style Hamptons estate
Clients also commission Fortified to install gun safe rooms – a highly-secure vault for storing guns, art, currency, and other expensive belongings
Ballistic panels can be fitted beneath wood paneled walls as an extra layer of protection, complete with security doors – and bulletproof windows like those pictured above
Along with the ramp-up in home security, some CEOs have also responded by hiring mock intruders to investigate potential flaws in their security details, according to Tim Gallagher, the chief security officer at investigations firm Nardello.
Major companies have also become more vigilant, including Goldman Sachs, who brought in extra security for a recent conference in Lower Manhattan.
Ivy League engineering graduate Mangione was arrested on December 9 moments after eating a hash brown in an Altoona, PA McDonald’s.
Cops closed in on the alleged killer after an employee at the restaurant recognized him from surveillance images NYPD shared online in the wake of the Midtown Manhattan shooting.
He was later charged with second-degree murder over the slaying of Thompson, 50, just before 7am on Wednesday outside the Hilton hotel where the exec had been set to make a speech to finance heavyweights later that day.
Mangione appears to have led police on a 280-mile manhunt from New York City’s 6th Avenue to the small Pennsylvania city of Altoona, around 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
The gunman left a trail of overt clues about his motive, including ammunition etched with the words ‘delay’ ‘deny’ and ‘depose’ and a bag of Monopoly board game money in his backpack left in Central Park.
The bulletproof doors are their most popular feature, starting at $9,000 per fitting
Panic or safe rooms are integrated into many of the homes – a bulletproof secret space designed to blend in with a bedroom or closet, which come with access to a designated security specialist available via phone or text
Fortified Estate said they’ve seen an estimated 50 percent increase in client inquiries since Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down Brian Thompson on December 4. (Pictured: Mangione arriving for his extradition hearing at Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania last week)
Officials believe the bullet etchings refer to the ‘three Ds of insurance’ – tactics used by American insurance giants to reject patients’ claims.
This motive appeared to be even more clearly outlined in a handwritten manifesto cops seized from Mangione during his arrest.
‘To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country,’ the three-page document reads. ‘To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone.’
‘I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done,’ the document adds. ‘Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.’
Mangione also allegedly had a ghost gun believed to be the rare World War Two era-inspired 9mm pistol used in Thompson’s murder, which the New York Post reported was a Swiss-made Brugger & Thomet VP9, and a silencer.
He will next appear in court in New York at a later date.
