Got G.U.T.S., A Service You Can Trust

After just a few months in operation, Got G.U.T.S, a security guard company for kids, has already proved that parents are willing to pay for peace of mind. Got G.U.T.S. assures parents their kids will get home safely and helps them to avoid that “I hate you, I am running away” conversation when a teen asks to go to a rock concert or for an unsupervised night out in the city with friends.

Rye native Ed Gerrity, 50, created Got G.U.T.S., Gerrity’s Underage Transportation and Security, to provide security guards for children ages 12 through 21. Without advertising, business has been picking up in recent months, mostly through word of mouth, he said.

For fees anywhere from $35 an hour to more than double that, G.U.T.S offers armed or unarmed security guards, all of whom are trained EMT certified law enforcement officers, firefighters or licensed security officers, to take your kid to an amusement park for the day, or just pick him up from baseball practice when your meeting runs late.

“Parents don’t have to worry. The kids are in good hands. We have professionals, it’s cops with pensions, jobs and security. You know you are getting a certain caliber person,” Gerrity said.

The Rye native and current Armonk resident bears a resemblance to Hollywood tough guy Bruce Willis and maintains a relaxed but alert demeanor of a man who has been protecting people for three decades. He smiles but keeps a guard up and is dedicated to the protection of his clients –he is not around to make friends.

He has worked security for 50 Cent, Madonna, and Michael Jackson while working as the Director of Operations for New York City’s premier private investigating firm Bo Dietl and Associates. As a Bo Dietl employee, Gerrity was one of the first people searching for Edgemont resident Lauren Spierer when she went missing years ago.

Having grown up the son of Ned Gerrity, who was the Senior Vice President of ITT Corp. a global conglomerate, Ed got used to armed guards.
“Wherever we went, we had armed guards. As a kid it was kind of cool,” he said.

He worked for his dad’s firm, Ned Gerrity and Associates after college and then moved on to the Chief of Public Safety for Manhattanville College and to Bo Dietl and Associates. He now works as the Director of Security and transportation at St. Vincent’s hospital and as the Supervisor of Security at Port Chester’s Capitol Theatre.

Gerrity got the idea to start a children’s security guard company after he starting working security for concerts and kept seeing teens and adults get too drunk or high at concerts.

“These kids were dropping like flies. Midnight rolls around and you see parents with a dizzy look on their face under the marquis,” Gerrity said. “We have to tell them we sent them to the hospital because they were high. And their friends just leave them.”

He knows what to look for, knows what drugs the kids are doing and how they are going to hide liquor from their parents.

He will check the car for liquor and make it clear that his clients, the children, are not going to do anything suspicious while he is around.

Got G.U.T.S. guards will do mandatory check ins if the parents don’t request them to join kids at shows, the will activate GPS on kid’s phone if possible, they have contacts inside big music venues like Madison Square Garden.

What Are the Kids Getting Into?

Garrity says that the most important thing parents can do to ensure their child’s safety when they don’t have security guards with them is to educate them about drugs and alcohol.

“When we were growing up we would drink in our parents house. Now if kids do that and the police come, those parents are going to jail. So kids are so sheltered they don’t know their limits.” Kids are doing molly, hallucinogenic mushrooms, pot and synthetic marijuana like salvia, he said.

“Kids bail on each other in a heard beat. Friends will leave and cover themselves before helping each other. They don’t understand the chemistry of what it does to their bodies and they can’t handle it.”

Got G.U.T.S. Clients

Not a fan of screaming adolescents and pop music, Gerrity as seen too many teenybopper bands like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift for his liking. (When asked what has been the worst show he has had to sit through, he said ‘all of them.’) But he provides security for other types of outings as well.

Gerrity or his guards are usually hired to take 15 to 17 years olds out in New York City, to shows at Madison Square Garden, after prom parties at the Jersey shore, to private “juice bar” parties in Manhattan and even to Six Flags.

“It worked out beautifully,” said Denise McDonald, a Larchmont mother of a 17-year-old girl who hired Ed to take her daughter and friends to Six Flags a few weeks ago.

“The girls were thrilled and I knew there was someone there if anything came up and they had a wonderful time,” she said.

McDonald does not mind that Gerrity has the kids sign confidentiality contracts with the guards that states the guards will not be reporting back to the parents about anything unless there was a problem.

“He is not a parent so they can talk freely amongst themselves,” McDonald said.
“He doesn’t get in their business, he is not there to be their friend. It is their time. And for me, just knowing they will be ok and they will come home safely, it is a good feeling inside; you can’t put a price tag on it.”