Crime hit a mini storage again, are you sruprised

I arrive to work this past Monday thinking this should be a quiet day, as usual I was wrong.  Like I normally do I dive the site.  Just a quick pass to make sure things are looking like they should, not like this.

 

What is missing in this picture?  Ok I know that’s not a fair question because I don’t have a picture of what it should look like, so let me fill you in.  The picture here shows one of the vacuums at the car wash. If you look down to the bottom left side of this one there is a metal bar. That bar should be across the coin box at the middle of the machine and locked into place.   At 5:15 Monday morning two idiots in a repo-tow truck dive past three cameras and cut the lock off the Vacuum but first they take some kind of stick (looked Like a weed eater) and knocked down and stole a couple of hundred dollar camera.  Now here is the good part the second lock on a Vacuum is hidden and almost impossible to break.

 

 

 The two idiots tried to pry the coin box out but did not get very far. Seven minutes later off they drive. I would normal give the perpetrators a clever name, but after very little deliberation I realize that for their lack of originality, their lack of fortitude to see their crime through and the fact they destroyed a camera that will take around $200 to replace in their attempt to steal $16 in quarters, I will not grace these two with a cool nick name.  They have discredited themselves, made a mockery out of petty crimes and sullied the good name of Repo Men all over the world.

A busy day

Sometimes even good people make me shake my head.  It was last Sunday and I was trying to get a lot of things done in a short amount of time.  After church I needed to to do three things; one, pick up my son from the Boy Scouts,  meet the new employee at Access to give him keys  and directions and finely get to my parents’ house to meet my wife for lunch.  At 12:30 I hit the house and dug up the keys for Andrew. By 12:30 I was at Access getting ready for Andrew.  At 12:45 I receive a call from Joshua that he is about 20 minute away from the pickup point. 1:00 Andrew shows up to work and I give him the run down on what to do on a Sunday. 1:15 I arrive at the pickup to get Joshua (he has been camping all weekend and the odor is quite interesting).  At 1:20 we are back at Guardian so Josh can have a quick shower then off to my parents.  This is when I see this.

The hand rail to the office door is knocked apart. Notice the scratch marks on the cement.  They go out about half way accross the walk path after the pipe was broken from the ground.  This was a powerful hit  Interesting fact about this is the bushes that the rail is up against, was not hit which leaves a very narrow target.   The cameras once again were on the fritz at the time of the hit and run and we never got a shot of the car, but we could see the rail get moved in one angle.  At 1:13 the rail jumps then 7 minutes later I pulled up.  No note, no tape, no nothing.  Monday afternoon (after Linda has made a police report) a customer calls and confesses to the accident.  Well at least we know where to send the bill. 

Now what did I do, simple. I took this picture, let Josh get cleaned up, when to my parents, eat a fine luch..... oh yes told Linda about "her" handrail over coffee and dessert.  Timming is everything.

A Scam Called a Moving Company

I haven’t seen this maneuver in a couple years but it still smells just as bad.  Over at the new store we had a very nice lady reserve a space.  Her story was that she was moving from somewhere in New Mexico to Yukon Oklahoma and our facility was in the best location for her needs.  She showed up around 10 am rented one of our biggest units and sat back to wait on the moving company.   3 hours later she was still waiting.  I then came to find out that the moving company was stopped on the side of the highway outside of town.  The home office of the moving company had decided to re-evaluate the price of the move, but they had not told their customer yet she just thought they were running late.  This is when I realized that she was doing business with the wrong moving company.   The truck did show up, and parked itself right in front of our gate.   The driver then lets the nice lady know that the main company has re-evaluated the load and the charge for the move has now gone from a staggering $3,000 to an unbelievable $10,000.  That’s right kids they wanted her to pay $7,000 more or he would not be allowed to unload the truck.  Now I did feel like ripping this driver a new orifice, but in reality he was not calling the shots here.  Luckily we soon found out who was. This sweet mild grand ma who had moved to Yukon to live at a retirement home close to her sons turned on the old George Patton.  She had a nice conversation with the moving company management.  She was nice and sweet and got all kinds of information.  Then while the company talked to the driver she called one son, a nice contractor here in the state to come by and help.  He showed up to block the truck in so it could not leave.  Then she called her other son a corporate contract lawyer and turned him loose on the moving company’s corporate leaders.  She ended her battle strategy by calling the Oklahoma City Sheriff’s department.

As soon as the lawyer got involved the driver got a call to leave our facility and to take his load to the company warehouse.  He had to tell them he could not because he was blocked in.  Then the sheriff showed up to take a report on the incident that was happening.  Then the Lawyer / son called to tell mom to only pay the $3,000 dollars after they unload and that his office would be dealing with the claim for the $7,000 extra.  At this point the driver received a call and then unloaded the truck.  These guys screwed with the wrong lady, but they would not be doing this if they did not get away with it most of the time. 

The bad news to all of this was someone had to stay and mind the store and the gates till all this was done.  Sometime after 10 pm.

The lesson:  National moving companies are not your friends.  Even if they have all American names , and large moving Vans, and can move you stuff in a straight Line.  Do not let anyone load your stuff without a written contract that states the final price.  Best policy is to rent your own truck and higher movers on both ends, one to load and another to unload.  I just do not trust the big name trucking companies.   

The Crap Hit the Fan Today

Can you guess what this is?

　



If you said “Gee Whiz Bob, that looks like the start of a Police Report”. I would say “go to the head of the class. I would then make fun of you for saying Gee Whiz.

This was a tough weekend for me. I had some situations happen that made me really check my gut reaction. Well Monday is here and it is time to go make things happen at the new storage facility… or is it? When I woke up this morning I had no idea that two very low life’s had broken into 18 different units or vehicles last night. I can’t show pictures of the effected units or even tell you how it was done. (We need to remember the privacy of our tenants). Now is the time to talk to about how to protect your belongings while they are in storage.

First do not let everyone know that you are using storage. The fewer people who know is best. If you use a moving company pack in unmarked boxes. Instead of writing mom’s good china, or Dad’s antique guns just mark the box with color so that you now all blue marked boxes go to dad’s study and green is for the kitchen.

Next Pack your unit to the gills, I mean fill every space possible. When someone opens the door it should be a solid wall of unmarked boxes and they should say “Whoa! I do not even want to take the time to figure this out”.

Go spend some money on a good lock. The cheapest lock you should look at is a Disk Lock Spend 10 to 20 dollars. Every space that was broken into last night was a standard lock. With the exception of on that was a school gym locker. The truth is locks keep honest people honest, so use a lock that will keep the most people honest.

Finally get your self some insurance. Self storage companies do not carry insurance on your property. You can sue a storage company for your losses but you will lose. When you sign a contract with a storage company you are in an agreement that the company will not carry any kind of policy for your stuff. Have I made myself clear No Self Storage Provider Will Cover You Stuff With Any Kind Of Policy. Now some Companies will offer a pay with your rent Policy, these are not bad policies so look closely at them, but they are not the provider or the insurer they are only a go between. The big point make sure you are covered with some kind of policy. Check your homeowner or renter policy to see if they cover you. No mater what it is your responsibility and no one else.