Frank Renfro, owner of Modlock, demonstrating a safe.
Palisadian Frank Renfro has a new business that most residents will want to know about, especially with the increase in residential robberies.
Modlock is a safe store, and Renfro’s company sells safes that range in weight from 300 to 1,500 pounds. The store, located in Old Pasadena, will deliver and install safes in Pacific Palisades.
“Our safes are made in America using only American steel,” Renfro said, adding that prices range from $1,000 to $9,000.
Through Friday, October 13, he is offering a sale, which includes a 10 percent manufacturer’s rebate and a 10 percent dealer discount. Palisades residents can receive the discount by using the code Pali20.
Renfro said, “I wanted to create a new business that was part retail, part service company. . . .And throw in the fact that home and business locks are transitioning from being mechanical to electronic, I wanted to create a more modern security company that helps consumers in each area of security, safes, locks, alarms and security cameras.”
He decided on a name Modlock—by combing the words “modern” and “lock.” His Pasadena store had our soft opening on Labor Day, with a ribbon cutting being planned for the future.
“All of our showrooms will provide homeowners and business owners with the ability to touch, feel, and interact with a variety of quality security solutions from smart locks, video doorbells, security cameras, alarm Systems, and maybe most importantly, the apps and software that used to control them,” Renfro said.
He added that “The user experience in the app for all of these products can range from extremely intuitive, simple, and works every time, to buggy/unreliable, confusing to navigate, and impossible to use.”
The store provides customers with the ability to try a system before they purchase a safe.
“It’s a convoluted industry with different players that have different motives, many of which are not in the best interest of the consumer,” Renfro said. “It’s also a complicated industry with complicated solutions, ranging from wireless to wired, local servers to cloud servers, self-monitoring to police monitoring.”
Renfro has made a series of Youtube videos that describe the different safes. For example, he demonstrates the Premium Home 8 in White Gloss with chrome hardware, which is a high-end home safe designed with a high fire rating, 120 minutes, and high burglar resistance, with 10-gauge American steel.
“I try to post videos for all our safes,” Renfro said.
Renfro, graduated from St. Edward’s University in Austin with a degree in international relations, and studied abroad in Venezuela and Costa Rica.
He and wife Marisa, who have two small children, moved to California in 2017 and to Pacific Palisades in 2021 click here. @modlock.us.