Crime at Your Facility

[Amy_ISS]

Have you ever had a crime happen at your facility other than a break-in? Tell us what happened.

[MamaDuke]

The facility I'm at now opened in 2005 and there has never been an incident here.

Previously, I managed a property near Palm Springs that had constant break-ins. Soooo many RV and plumbing trucks broken into and so much stuff stolen. But the owner refused to invest in decent cameras. And the city wouldn't allow more than a 5-foot fence. So they hopped right over, were caught on camera (but not identifiable by any stretch). We ended up having to hire overnight security guards to patrol all night.

[lady5563]

When the pandemic had started in 2020 I did have 2 kids cut a hole in my fence and they did cut and remove about 4-5 unit's locks...they never took a single item out of any of the units that were broken into!

[RandyL]

I had one just recently here that started as a break in.

Recently we just had about 500 or so doors replaced across 3 locations. Shortly after having the door replaced I found a unit broken into. This person had just rented the unit online 3 weeks earlier. I tried to call the tenant and contact person and numbers were disconnected. I called the sheriff, explaining that I had video and license plates of the event that happened. I wanted them to check and see if it was my tenant or other parties.

They reached out the tenant we had on record, and he said he has never rented a storage unit before. He reached out to me and told me the same thing. I confirmed his information in our system. He then proceeds to tell me that he has probably lost 30 drivers licenses over the years.

So we determined we had a case of identity theft. The people who rented the unit paid with a money order this month and put their actual address on the money order. I was able to put that address into google street view and match the car in the driveway to the car in the videos at my facility.

Always nice when you can hand the police a slam dunk easy to solve case.

[BusyProperties]

I had one just recently here that started as a break in.

Recently we just had about 500 or so doors replaced across 3 locations. Shortly after having the door replaced I found a unit broken into. This person had just rented the unit online 3 weeks earlier. I tried to call the tenant and contact person and numbers were disconnected. I called the sheriff, explaining that I had video and license plates of the event that happened. I wanted them to check and see if it was my tenant or other parties.

They reached out the tenant we had on record, and he said he has never rented a storage unit before. He reached out to me and told me the same thing. I confirmed his information in our system. He then proceeds to tell me that he has probably lost 30 drivers licenses over the years.

So we determined we had a case of identity theft. The people who rented the unit paid with a money order this month and put their actual address on the money order. I was able to put that address into google street view and match the car in the driveway to the car in the videos at my facility.

Always nice when you can hand the police a slam dunk easy to solve case.

This is why I refuse to rent without seeing them or at the very least speaking to them on the phone. I ask a lot of questions & make a note of everything. It is much harder when they have another person's ID?!?! Well done on the case!! I had quite a few break ins until I stepped up my camera game, only had one after that and handed the police enough to get 6 counts of burglary for each person. Not one since.

[KrisinCali]

About a year ago we had a guy stealing trailers from our facility. Like we lost about 5 of them before he was caught. We've since required everyone to have hitch locks and we put in motion sensors everywhere.