Common Theft and How to Prevent it
Common Theft in Storage Facilities
When we rent a storage unit, we are accepting some level of risk that our items may end up being stolen. That’s just the nature of owning things–if you have things in your house, there is also some risk of them being stolen. But of course, when you’re trusting a storage unit to keep your items safe, you want some type of guarantee that the risk of theft is being addressed by the facility. Any good storage facility will have security measures in place to protect against the most common types of theft and encourage you that your items will be safe while they’re away from home.
To help you make the safest decision for your possessions, here is our guide to the most common theft that occurs in storage units and what to look for in a facility to protect against it.
Common Methods of Theft
Lock Cutting
Thieves can break in during the night using a lock cutter to break locks on storage units and fences. The thief can then remove items from the storage unit as long as the lock being cut goes undetected. This type of theft is more common in places where access control isn’t monitored as tightly and security cameras aren’t prevalent. In these scenarios, there is no way to know who was in the facility at the time of the crime and no potential method of preventing or identifying it on camera footage.
Renting Adjacent Unit
Some thieves are a bit more clever than just bringing lock cutters and hoping for the best. These criminals will rent a storage unit with fake identification to gain access to the facility, then use that unit to access the adjacent ones. Whether they crawl over or under the wall or simply cut a hole in it, they’ll be able to access every unit in that row given some time. Any facility without cameras and access control would have an even more difficult time detecting this crime than the lock cutting.
Solutions to Common Theft
Security Alarms
Security alarms can help prevent theft by going off when someone accesses a facility without permission. These alarms may go off when someone cuts a lock or a fence without opening it via the proper access control. They can also serve as a deterrent for some thieves if they see that the facility has an alarm system in place.
Security Cameras
A facility with security cameras in hallways will have two advantages:
- They can monitor for crimes and potentially detect them as they are happening.
- They can check footage after a crime has been committed and potentially use it to identify or track a suspect.
Not only do security cameras make it much easier to trace a crime, they can also be a preventative. Some thieves won’t even rob a facility if they see cameras, making a security system a must-have deterrent.
Monitored Access Control
Facilities that use access control already have an advantage to those who do not because they are better able to keep out thieves by regulating who has permission to enter a buildling. Particularly if the access control is to the entire facility and not just a certain unit. Many places use keycards as well, which eliminates a thief’s ability to just cut a lock to enter.
This may not stop them from getting more creative–after all, if the thief rents a unit to steal, they will gain access to the facility fair and square. However, most forms of access control can also be monitored. This means the access control system will keep track of what passcodes or keycards were used to gain entry during the time of the crime, allowing authorities to narrow down suspects in the event that a thief has gotten past security systems.
Here at AAA Storage in Asheville, we have many secure facilities with measures in place to keep your possessions safe from common theft. If you are in the Asheville area and you are concerned about storing your items in the most secure way possible, give us a call or a visit today!