In a quiet town like Del Rey Oaks, it’s a big deal when nearly $1 million worth of goods are stolen from a single business. So when police heard that was the case at Public Storage, a major investigation was launched.
“We will work on this until we can’t work on it anymore,” Del Rey Oaks Police Sgt. Bob Ingersoll says.
The spate of crime began in January and since then, 25 storage unit have been broken into. Ingersoll says they first heard about the string of break-ins from one of the victims – and not the business – which does not sit well with law enforcement.
“We were the last ones to find out about the break-ins,” Ingersoll says.
The business notified tenants via phone, email or postcard, Ingersoll says. One of those victims found $900,000 worth of medical equipment was stolen from his unit. Other tenants had mountain bikes worth thousands of dollars nabbed. And no suspects have been pinned.
It remains unclear how the thieves continue to access the gated business. Ingersoll speculates a former employee may have shared the after-hours password, because only people with an all-access code could enter at the time the thefts occurred.
To Ingersoll’s dismay, the business has no security cameras or alarm system set up. And to his surprise, the business has hiked up the rent cost per unit by $22 a month since the series of thefts.
Ingersoll is not aware if all victims have been notified about the break-ins and urges anyone who has a unit there to check their property and change their passwords. Public Storage declined to comment for this story.
(4) comments
I've said this time and time again, people in the self storage business need to be more accountable towards their clients! A simple security set up that involves a camera and some well-situated alarms at the front gates and perimeters would do wonders for catching would-be thieves before they've even entered the storage facility property!
Why would the owners of this Public Storage not immediately call the police when they discovered the break-in's? Were they covering for their "former employee?" Their responsibility should be to the customers who rented storage spaces for their belongings, not their "former employee" who compromised their property.
It sounds like the police need to focus on the "former employee" who had access to the all-hours code, which is the only code that allowed access to the facility during the time of the thefts.
Well the cops here are too focused on military trucks and bomb sniffing K-9s to do any real police work. Talk about a waste of money. How can the citizens of this tiny town accept that?
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.