3AW Drive with Shane McInnes & DUKE Electrical Group
In an era where personal safety is becoming a top priority for Victorians, Craig Winder, Director of Duke Electrical Group, joined Shane McInnes on 3AW Drive to discuss the sobering reality of home security in 2026. With recent data showing that one in five residents no longer feel safe in their own homes, Craig shared his own harrowing experiences with attempted break-ins and the rising “domino effect” of concern rippling through local communities. From the surge in AI-powered surveillance to the surprising trend of families installing full-scale panic rooms, this interview dives deep into how the industry is evolving to provide a necessary sanctuary in uncertain times.
Date: April 9, 2026
Host: Shane McInnes
Guest: Craig Winder, Part Owner of Duke Electrical Group
Listen to our interview here or read the transcription below.
Shane McInnes: Craig Winder is owner of Duke Electrical Group, security expert as well. Craig, good afternoon to you, thank you for your time.
Craig Winder: Hi, thank you.
Shane McInnes: Are you surprised one in five Victorians don’t feel safe at home?
Craig Winder: Not at all, not at all. I’ve had three attempts in four months of my own home. So let alone all my clients’ homes. It seems quite common and not even being reported, which is even sadder.
Shane McInnes: So you yourself, who clearly works in this field, you’ve actually been impacted by attempted break-ins?
Craig Winder: Absolutely, yeah. From the cars the first time, to trying our doors and having a flag system with their friends as backup waiting in a car outside the third time, which is quite scary.
Shane McInnes: Does that then, I guess, put your neighbors on guard as well, Craig, knowing that, you know, here you are being impacted, your neighbors hear the story, they go “hold on, am I safe at home?” and then it’s kind of a domino effect around the suburb and within the community?
Craig Winder: Absolutely. The first time it happened, I posted on social media and Jackie picked it up. And Jackie posted it and they somehow picked up my house from the background, just put two and two together, and five or six neighbors and the school principal across the road came over the next day—all of them. All concerned, all scared, all also reporting what’s happened to them, and they all said the same: the school was broken into three times in one night, neighbors twice in that same period, Hampton the same night with machetes. It was just insane to hear how literally all people just knocking on my door randomly saying, “You don’t know me, but it’s happened to me as well.”
Shane McInnes: So are you finding, Craig, within your business that a lot of people are coming to increase the security within their home when it comes to things like security systems, CCTV, so that they can have at least some peace of mind?
Craig Winder: Absolutely, but it’s going to a whole new level I would never, ever have expected where—we’re doing three houses at the moment with a panic room, we’re planning two more with panic rooms—
Shane McInnes: Excuse me—hold on, back up, back up. An actual panic room? Like the movie with Jodie Foster where they go into the panic room and the door slams shut and they wait for help?
Craig Winder: Yeah, you wouldn’t believe it. They have water in there, they have a porta-potty, they have backup 5G, backup internet, they have food, and they all plan for three days in there. That kind of level, and it’s no exaggeration at all.
Shane McInnes: That is extraordinary. So is this a new thing taking off in Melbourne and Victoria? Or obviously you talk in these circles, you wouldn’t be the only business doing it?
Craig Winder: Yeah, we didn’t hear much of it. We’ve only been operating for two years and the first year we were doing a lot of CCTV. In the last 12 months, literally, there are three panic rooms underway and two more being planned—that’s five this year alone. We never did think we’d do one; we thought it was kind of cool like the movies at first, then we dug down—it was scary.
Shane McInnes: So, can I ask, just with these panics—is it something that needs to be done kind of at the start of building a home as opposed to one actually adding a panic room to an existing house?
Craig Winder: It’s definitely cheaper at the start because you have access to everything in the walls, but we’ve had one where they’re turning their bike storage room for their kids in their basement—where they just store their kids’ toys and bikes—into a panic room. We’ve got people turning kind of laundry rooms into a panic room. So it’s, yeah… you’d ideally do it first, but it’s pretty serious business.
Shane McInnes: Gee, it’s a real sad state of affairs when you’re going to that level that families—and they’re not doing this just for the giggles of it and going, “Oh, I can brag that I have a panic room”—I mean, it’s not something you ever want to use, but families are so in fear that someone could break into their home or a group of youths, and they need that, I guess, sanctuary, if you like?
Craig Winder: Yeah, absolutely. They’ve gone to the level now where they want plans. So they want us to work with outsourced contractors, security contractors, so they have security pendants on them now. So they hang around their neck, in their pocket, in their bag; they carry them around their house and have them planted around the house. They have an alarm button to lock the house down, they run down to their panic room. Obviously, the police get called, but they also call security companies now and they have groups in certain areas because the police don’t come. I had it; they weren’t available. The closest unit was Caulfield and I’m in Beaumaris when I had it, and they now have security guards that come because of these pendants we’re installing as well. It’s sad to see someone carry that around their own home.
Shane McInnes: I find this so fascinating, Craig, because you think of a panic button and an emergency service or police—20 years ago my—well, an alarm system where I lived with my family, we had an alarm system and there was actually a panic button that you could actually press, and I think someone accidentally pressed it once and fireys and police cars came storming up the road. It was a false alarm. But they just don’t have the availability anymore. And especially, I know a lot of these thieves are breaking into homes to steal cars, but if you have three blokes in your home who you don’t know, who have weapons—you don’t know what they’re capable of, you don’t know if they’re drugged up—you don’t want to afford to take that risk with your family.
Craig Winder: Absolutely. And people aren’t taking risks, even people without the money. We install an AI—and this isn’t a promotion by the way—like, we install the AI camera now. So people are ripping out their own systems even if they’re one or two years old to AI, and so it only goes off if the person’s on their property or if there’s certain cars in the area. We’ve got systems that detect new Bluetooth signals that aren’t usually nearby. So they’re literally picking up AI, and if you have an alarm go off at 8, 9, 10, 11 o’clock, you know there’s a person, and you go. And sadly, like we’ve got one here now and if there’s a delivery, or a late Amazon delivery, or a friend, and they arrive at 10, you panic because you think “Oh, someone’s here,” and now we’re sitting on edge. We’re scared in our own home. My partner’s scared every night. She won’t be home alone anymore.
Shane McInnes: Can you keep up with the demand at the moment?
Craig Winder: No, not at all. It’s crazy. We book in jobs and we get people crying on the phone going, “I need you here today, I need my cameras fixed, I need this done.” We had a job last week where someone called up and they were at their partner’s house, their car got robbed, they took their partner’s car, their keys were actually in their partner’s car and a bill. So they saw the bill, they went to that address and took their car as well from their house and robbed their house while they weren’t there.
Shane McInnes: Craig, I really appreciate your time this afternoon because it is eye-opening. And I think if you are not affected by this directly, or maybe it hasn’t happened on your street or the next street, you don’t hear as much about it. You hear of it in the media, it’s a news story—”Ah, it won’t happen to me”—but it is happening to so many people. Ah, hold the line, Craig, I’m going to put you back to Jimmy because I reckon it’d be a fascinating discussion, whether it’s with me or Jackie down the track, and to talk more about the technology that is going into home security, again using AI for people to feel safe. Security systems that are only two years old—and I guarantee you there are a lot of people out there who have a security system that is more than 20 years old—but the technology being used and people want to be able to keep up with that to feel safe.
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