Self Storage Security
The self storage industry in the United States has evolved both as an industry and as a target. Self Storage companies offer services and amenities as varied in scope and depth as any service based marketplace. Criminals however, are discovering in even greater numbers that self storage facilities can be a source of revenue and a base for illegal operations.
Once satisfying only the need to store consumers’ surplus possessions, the self storage industry now provides dedicated and specialized storage for recreational vehicles, boats, fine art and antique collections. Many facilities throughout the United States are now offering personalized services such as:
- Customer specified climate conditioning
- Wireless in-unit motion sensing
- Unique customer access control and recording
- Surveillance camera monitoring via a secure web site
Self storage owners and managers have always fought to prevent thieves from breaking in and ransacking customer units. However the threats that present themselves today are not only broader in scope, but much more pervasive in frequency and no longer an unusual occurrence.
Which is Worse: Criminals Breaking In or Moving In?
It’s a rhetorical question that unfortunately many self storage owners have had to ask themselves. Self storage facilities have traditionally been designed to resist after-hours break-ins, utilizing a variety of fences, locks, lighting and live-in managers. These tactics frankly work well to discourage the occasional thief or teenagers on a lark. The professional thief on the other hand will easily circumnavigate these measures, and poses a greater threat to the facility.
Thieves possess a greater motivation and more importantly, a broader range of skills and equipment to defeat many security strategies. Locks can be picked, deadbolts can be broken and sirens can be silenced. Thieves can operate over a prolonged period, renting a storage unit legitimately and then breaking into other units after hours. They are frequently experienced with this type of crime and focused on their systematic attack from within.
One of the hardest to detect and yet most damaging sources of burglary is from managers and employees of the storage facility. Operating with relative impunity and generally above suspicion, self storage facility staff members generally have free reign within a building and can break into units under the auspices of ‘maintenance’. With access to customer records and the ability to predict customer arrivals, these unscrupulous individuals can wreak extensive damage over extended periods with little chance of detection, and then move on to another company before a pattern of crime is detected.
One of the most insidious threats to self storage owners on the rise in recent years are the criminals who will rent a storage unit and then “move in”. The unit then becomes a base of operation for illegal activities, the more common of which is the creation of a functioning methamphetamine lab. These criminals work hard to be unobtrusive and inconspicuous, yet represent a chemical hazard that could threaten a part or even the whole of a storage facility. Ironically, the favorite targets of the meth lab culprits tends to be quiet, rural storage facilities as opposed to the suburban and ‘big city’ units.
