Public Storage Complaint - Public Storage has numerous thefts w/ no reports to other tenants - Storage facility

Posted by Tennboy1981 on 2010-01-12:

What? Im confused with the whole smoking cigarettes part. What are you talking about and how did you know who was smoking cigarettes after hours? How do you know this was an inside theft? Do they have cameras?

Posted by bearkatkitten on 2010-01-12:

"Not only was I told by the property manager there it was none of my business who was smoking cigarettes with her on the property after hours,"

What does that have to do with theft of your property?

Posted by bearkatkitten on 2010-01-12:

"I went to my unit to get a few things and it was completely cleared out. "

Was the lock broken? Did you have a lock?

Posted by Butterfly7 on 2010-01-12:

The smoking cigarettes has to do with a property manager that had individuals on the property with her that were not authorized to be there. Not only that they were in a pick-up truck the same pick up truck that probably stole my stuff from the storage. If seven other units were broken into within one night I say an inside job. Yes I had a lock but it was issued by Public Storage. They stole my childrens clothes and shoes and they stole everything we owned. How do you explain to a 9 and 10 year old that they dont have clothes, shoes, toys or a bed to sleep in because people want to steal and not work hard for what they need, like I had to.

Posted by Butterfly7 on 2010-01-12:

Futhermore if you cant say something positive about my loss then I dont need you to comment in regards to my feelings for Public Storage. They stole everything we owned and it just took me 3 months to find me and my children a home. We now have a place to move into but with no furniture. So if you cant give some advice as to how I can have my issue resolved then please keep your comments to yourself because obviously you do [snip] too like steal peoples stuff. Thank you

Posted by MRM on 2010-01-12:

If you're on a tight budget, may I suggest to get furnitures at thrift stores? If you shop around they do have decent furnitures at thrift stores. And if you dont mind, they also have decent children's clothes and toys.

Posted by bearkatkitten on 2010-01-12:

I was just asking questions, jeez. All you had to do was answer them, and I thank you. No need to get defensive. I didn't say anything positive or negative, thank you very much... just asked questions.
That's one thing I've learned when renting any sort of storage from someone... to come with my own lock. That way, the only way they'd have access to my things would be to break the lock themselves. I've rented from Public Storage as well, but in Texas. But, I provided my own lock.
Hopefully, the police will be helpful in your endeavor to recover anything from this mess.

Posted by Tennboy1981 on 2010-01-12:

You need to be more precise in your post then. All we know is you start talking about someone smoking. You dont mention where you were when these so called unauthorized people were smoking. Were you spying on them? How do you know about these people? I just want to know ALL the fact, and not just what you want to tell us. If you are going to tell us a story, you need to tell us the WHOLE story and not just half of it, or dont post anything here. How do you know these people were not authorized to be there??? Im sorry to hear about your stuff getting stolen, Im sure it must be hell for you. PLease don't be taking out your anger on us. We are not the ones who stole your stuff.

Posted by raven2002 on 2010-01-12:

No cameras? Was the lock broken? Or just plain missing? What about insurance?

Posted by clutzycook on 2010-01-12:

Do you have renter's insurance? If so, that may cover your loss. What have the police found out?

Posted by Stew on 2010-01-12:

Locks and I don't care what kind or what the manufacture claims merely keeps reasonably honest people honest. There's not a lock made that can stand up to an industrious thief.

If the theft is that rampant then yeah I'd be a bit suspicious that it was an inside job as well.

Good advice clutzcook.

Posted by Tennboy1981 on 2010-01-12:

I dont think most people purchase renters insurance on their storage units...at least I dont know anyone who has.....

Posted by Starlord on 2010-01-12:

My wife worked with a lady that owned a storage place with her husband, and one of the first things I observed was that if you get a storage space, provide your own lock, and not a cheap one, either. If you are issued a lock, I would be most suspicious, because that says to me that they may have a master key for the locks they issue. The best locks, in my opinion as a security expert are the round high security locks. However, as has been mentioned, all a lock does is keep an honest person honest. I agree though, this sounds like an inside job.

Posted by clutzycook on 2010-01-12:

That's true Tennboy, but if she had renter's insurance on the stuff in the previous place she was renting, I wonder if it would carry over to the stuff once it was in the storage locker. Judging by her post, I'm assuming that her prior place was a rental. It was just a thought. I'm still wondering what the police have to say...

Posted by Butterfly7 on 2010-01-13:

Thank you all for your helpful advice. I did purchase the lock from the actual company and the insurance I purchased at the time of signing the contract only covers 2500.00, after the incident the thought occured to me that maybe I should have purchased renters insurance. The lock was not broken but I am left handed. When I went to grab a few items the lock was placed back on facing to the right, my youngest son kept asking for his bike I told him we would be in our house next week so we would get the bike then. As soon as I opened the unit before I even turned the light on my boy said mom my bike isnt here, we placed the bike in the front and sure enough all of our things were gone. To the reply in me taking my anger out on anyone I'm not angry at anyone on this site Im angry at the people who stole my things, they took everything that we had. Not only that they have access to all of my personal info, birth certificates for me and my children, receipts of purchases, bank info valid and invalid, its just the inconvenience more than anything and then for someone to steal my childrens things thats more heartwrenching than anything, but as I stated previously I thank anyone and everyone for their helpful advice, and I appreciate all of your concerns for my loss. Please once again if you have also been a victim because as I stated previously I wasnt the only victim on that day, please respond to this correspondence so that we can work together in preventing this from happending to anyone else and their families. Thank you.

Posted by PepperElf on 2010-01-13:

does this place allow "after hours access"?

just wondering. the storage unit i use has set office hours, but then has 247 access to customers - they have to use an indiviual gate code to get into the facility.

Posted by CrystalSword on 2010-01-13:

Another place you can get decent, and sometimes almost new furniture is www.freecycle.org in your area. If you have access to a pc then this would be the way to go. If its posted in Freecycle....the item must be FREE, also www.craigslist.org has listings for free items, I have picked up several nice items this way for little or no cost.

I know its hard starting over again, and we had to do just that when we left Arizona with our truck, a small trailer and personal items. We moved no furniture, but within a month had a fully furnished home here in Washington and the cost was very minimal.

We bought a like new couch at Goodwill for under $30, table lamps for $15 - $20...dressers I got through craigslist for $15 - $35. Not everyone gets rid of just junk on these sites, in our case, we got stuff that was even better than what we had in Arizona for a fraction of the cost of moving the stuff up here!

Good luck, and do check craigslist for a replacement bike for your son.

Posted by clutzycook on 2010-01-13:

Butterfly, you left papers with personal information in your storage unit?

Posted by CrystalSword on 2010-01-14:

clutzy, many times when we bought storage units at auction we would find personal info, family pictures and the like. I would box these and give them to the manager/owner of the storage company, to go back to the person who had the unit....there were a couple times that the person who had the unit had passed away so we shredded everything. The couple of times we have had to rent a storage unit, I kept our personal papers as condensed as possible and carried them with us...or, in the situation we are in now, living with a roommate, I sent some stuff over to my son's where I knew it would be safe. I would never leave sensitive info in a storage unit, you just never know who might end up with access to it.

Posted by Butterfly7 on 2010-01-14:

Yes I left personal papers and copies of my birth certificate and both of my boys, Im really organized so I boxed everything up in plastic storage bins but I wrote with a Sharpee marker what boxes had what in them but yea I did. This is a hard lesson learned I really thought my stuff would be safe in storage and to be honest until this happened to me I never heard of anyone's things being stolen. I knew that if the bill wasnt paid your personal items could be auctioned off but I never thought stolen. I paid the bill on the 5th of Jan and my stuff was gone by the 9th of Jan, but that is absolutely correct never leave anything of real value like jewelry or personal info in your storage unit. At least if my jewelry wasnt stolen I could pawn a few items and get furniture. But you know what after this Earthquake in Haiti Im very thankful that at least Im still here, alot of people lost everything and though I feel like I did also at least I have a home to move into this weekend and CrystalSword thanks for the advice Im going to check that site out today so I can go ahead and refurnish my home. Just please whoever you are if you are going to be renting storage space please dont be naive and think that it cant happen to you or that the facility you are renting from employs honest individuals. Thank you all once again. Butterfly7

Posted by goduke on 2010-01-14:

They didn't have any kind of security video? I thought most of the storage places did nowadays.

Posted by KenPopcorn on 2010-01-14:

Have you filed a report with the police? That'd be a great place to start if you haven't.

Posted by empee on 2010-08-28:

First of all, many of these managers live on site. They are human beings and sometimes have a life too. Being on the property with another person after hours doesn't indicate anything more criminal than you being in your back yard at 10pm. Neither does smoking cigarettes. If your neighbor's house catches on fire does that mean you're guilty of arson?

Second; you've no evidence that this is an inside job. You suspect that it's an inside job because A. Someone was on the property and B. your stuff is gone so C. the person on the property did it. This is a logical fallacy known as the "slippery slope". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

Third; professional thieves and burglars target storage facilities. They often hit multiple units. Very few go to a storage facility and hit one unit unless they know what's in there and it's something they want. I know of one PS facility where over 70 units were hit overnight with a live on site manager present at the property. The same live on site manager that called the police, worked with them, and assisted them in access so they could get prints on everything they could (which were not theirs by the way).

Last but not least, PS is not going to tell other tenants about every issue that happens on the property, just as the bank you do business with doesn't tell you if one of their branches got robbed, just as your mechanic isn't laying out for you if any cars have been taken off his property, just as your apartment complex doesn't lay out how many and which apartments have ever been burglarized there when you sign a lease.

"How do you explain to a 9 and 10 year old that they dont have clothes, shoes, toys or a bed to sleep in because people want to steal and not work hard for what they need"

Really? Do your children live in your storage unit? If you have their bed and clothes in a unit and it was stolen how are they doing without unless they're getting dressed in the unit or sleeping on the bed that's in there?

"Futhermore if you cant say something positive about my loss then I dont need you to comment in regards to my feelings for Public Storage. "

So you only want input that reinforces your point? You're not interested in truth or rationality at all, just in what you want to hear? You can feel however you want about Public Storage, but if you're expecting people to be sympathetic and understanding, you need to present a little better argument than that which you have. So much of what you said here doesn't make any sense.