Exit door security breach at Rocky River movie theater

CLEVELAND - The Joker is a well-known villain in the fictional Batman universe. The attack took place at a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," the final movie in a Batman trilogy, following "The Dark Knight" in which The Joker was the principal villain.

ABC News reports the gunman, 24-year-old James Holmes, dressed in costume,  bought a ticket, went into the movie theater  and sat down with the crowd. About 30 minutes in, he exited the cinema to the parking lot though an emergency exit then returned through the same door heavily-armed and opened fire.

So just how easy it is to enter through an exit door? On Your Side Consumer Investigator Jenn Strathman decided to find out. She purchased tickets for an afternoon matinee in Rocky River's AMC Theaters.

She walked into the darkened theater, no one else was inside so she approached the exit door. There were no signs indicating an alarm would sound, so she pushed open the door. Nothing happened. 

But that's not all, Strathman said as she walked away and the door never closed completely. She had to slam it to get it to shut.  

This worries local security expert Tim Dimoff of SACS Consulting. "I am concerned that he (Holmes) went out that door, left it cracked open, got the firearms out his car and came back in that door," said Dimoff.

Dimoff questions why there wasn't an alarm on the Colorado movie theater exit door and is curious just how many theaters actually do have working warnings on these emergency doors.

Strathman does, too and asked the management at the AMC theater. He would only tell her he was on his way to shut the door and she needed to call a media hotline at AMC's corporate offices.

"There are solutions to this problem that don't cost a lost of money. This is just common sense. Those doors should not have been accessible to come in and out," said Dimoff. "We can't take shortcuts on security, we just can't do it anymore."

Click on the video player to the left to watch Strathman's video.