from Hacker News

So thieves broke into your storage unit again

by goldenskye on 10/6/24, 1:09 AM with 299 comments

by istjohn on 10/6/24, 5:29 PM
The storage unit industry is one of the most awful, customer hostile industries I've encountered. It's impossible to get the local facility on the phone, publicly listed phone numbers are all redirected to a national call center where reps are unable to even accurately quote prices. TFA covers the insurance kickback scam. Then after I moved into my unit, I discovered 75% of the units in my facility could be broken into with zero tools because the padlocks provided by the facility had enough slack in the shackle that if you rotated the lock 90 degrees there was room for the bolt to slide the half inch needed to clear the bolt hole in the strike plate. Then there was the rodent infestation.
The paradox is that the monthly cost of a unit will quickly exceed the value of whatever is stored there unless the items have sentimental value or are very expensive. In TFA, their losses from theft was $500 and their insurance limit was $2,000. Within two years they would exceed that in rent payments on the unit. A Google search suggests the average storage unit tenancy is only 10 months. That's reasonable. Long-term storage only makes sense when the value exceeds what can reasonably be entrusted with the lax security of a storage facility.
by Simon_ORourke on 10/6/24, 6:26 PM
My ex-wife demanded that we store some awful, terrible wicker furniture after a house move, so I put these cheap monstrosities into a $40/month storage unit in a semi-desolate area of town. The unit was broken into three or four times but the thieves didn't do me the favor of actually stealing anything. On the last break in I contemplated just leaving them a note with $20 inside pleading with them to just take the damned things.
by lifeisstillgood on 10/6/24, 6:49 AM
I’m stunned by the idea of making the pawn shop whole.
As I understand UK law, if you buy stolen goods, the original owner can just claim it back and you take the loss - simply to discourage buying with knowledge it was stolen.
I guess the pawn shop would go out of business but it does seem if you let them act as a fence you are solving for the wrong problem
by loopdoend on 10/6/24, 4:13 AM
> I'm not even sure what the notarization step was accomplishing: the inventory sheets aren't affidavits.
The percentage of people who see the word "notarized" alongside "inventory sheet" and simply give up must be quite high. Notarization accomplishes nothing besides causing a headache. Insurance companies don't make money by paying out claims, you know.
by treflop on 10/6/24, 2:39 PM
Don’t buy insurance from the same company giving you the service.
Insurance is for you and you should pick it from your own choice of company and you should tailor the policy for your own needs.
Same with financing.
In my case, I get a lot of my insurance from a guy in my town and he has an office that I can walk into if I need help.
by nsxwolf on 10/6/24, 4:50 AM
I used to work security and making rounds in a place like this would give me chills. Running into thieves at 3 in the morning is one of the most terrifying things you will ever experience.
by User23 on 10/6/24, 4:59 AM
Having to pay the fence to get your stuff back is so California. In the more civilized states pawnbrokers are expected to know the risks of buying potentially stolen property, and if they do they get to eat it.
Maybe that's why property crimes short of grand theft aren't really enforced in California?
by bodyfour on 10/6/24, 6:07 AM
What is annoying to me is that in this internet-connected age, the storage units I see still don't have better per-unit security.
Just a phone alert to say "door to unit #xyz has been opened" would be a huge improvement. Wire up a cheap webcam for extra credit.
by kstrauser on 10/6/24, 2:42 AM
There are a million reasons why you should never do this, but I would be tempted to use storage unit #3 as the place to keep my land mine collection.
Edit: “You have a land mine collection?”
No, but after storage unit #2, I’d daydream about starting one.
by nytesky on 10/6/24, 2:47 PM
In general isn’t the consensus that storage units are a very bad deal for “storage”. It can be useful for temporary storage for bulky items like furniture when renovating your house or in between houses, but the fees would quickly accumulate and pay for almost any reasonable contents.
If the fees wouldn’t cover replacement of the contents within 6 months, they are too valuable to store in a storage unit.
by roland35 on 10/6/24, 3:15 PM
What a story! Most people probably would just give up. Dealing with storage units is why I try to eliminate all the extra "stuff" in my life... George Carlin had a great bit on stuff: https://youtu.be/MvgN5gCuLac
by fortran77 on 10/6/24, 2:23 PM
It’s outrageous that pawn shops don’t have to eat the loss in California. They have no incentive to check for stolen items.
by bluedino on 10/6/24, 3:32 PM
An acquaintance of mine was stealing big-ticket items from a storage unit. Campers, boats, etc.
Of course he eventually got caught. The insurance company had already paid the owner of one of the campers, so it went to auction, and he bought it. Kind of funny.
by iluvcommunism on 10/6/24, 11:22 PM
The author paid for storage for over 20 years. That is an insane amount of rent paid. I used storage once for about two weeks- $200. Such a waste, but I had no choice at that time. Buy some land, buy a shed. In a few years time it’ll pay for itself.
by andrewstuart on 10/6/24, 5:52 AM
At this stage I'd probably thank thieves for clearing out my garage.
Last time I cleared out my old stuff there was nothing I could do to get people to take most of the crap at zero cost.
by Simulacra on 10/6/24, 2:40 AM
This is heartbreaking. The storage facility insurance scam is one that needs to be investigated by the government. It's a tremendous rip off and covers nothing.
by smeeger on 10/6/24, 3:51 PM
he gives a list of things to do or consider. supporting laws and politicians that catch and punish criminals effectively is somehow not on that list…
by immibis on 10/6/24, 4:24 PM
Easy to say "never use a storage unit" when you have a long-term home.
by bko on 10/6/24, 3:44 PM
The indifference of this by everyone involved is infuriating. This criminal activity is treated as natural as rain, just something us 98% of people have to endure.
It's important to remember that accepting crime, especially low level crime like this is a policy choice. It's the same people doing the same crimes over and over. They have run ins with the law and they just get let go to continue terrorizing the rest of us.
For instance, the number of state prisoners that have had 15 or more prior arrests is over 26%. You can cut crime. You can just prosecute these people and take them out of society for their most destructive years (18-40) and we can end this madness.
Even a 15 strikes and you're out policy would make a huge impact on the quality of life for the rest of us
https://mleverything.substack.com/p/acceptance-of-crime-is-a...
by renewiltord on 10/6/24, 6:23 AM
If thieves had emptied my storage unit before I married my wife and she made the decision for me, they would have been doing me a favour.
I don’t think any advanced security storage solution is likely to get many clients since they usually choose based on pricing.
by pyuser583 on 10/7/24, 1:42 AM
This is more a rant against insurance than storage units.
Insurance is a heavily regulated industry. Please complain to your state insurance commissioner.
by araes on 10/6/24, 5:59 PM
So many of these stories sound like some JRPG.
Your reward for being such a diligent and highly achieving collector ... is the thieves target you preferentially. "You gained a Torture++ Level, Congratulations!"
You spent so much effort solving the last burglary, and chose such a highly secure location ... that now the thieves view your collection as a high level challenge.
... and are immediately notified of the available achievement. Some Prison Warden voice announces "There's a griefer, diligence punishing achievement available in Borg sector # of #." Their thief tools immediately 0-Day, exploit, jackpot, lottery level up to be better than your facility.
by Magi604 on 10/6/24, 3:07 AM
Good old insurance companies, always looking for ways to get out of having to pay out for claims.
I mean, I guess it is their job, so can't really fault them for that.
by AndrewKemendo on 10/6/24, 5:13 PM
The key takeaway I think people are overlooking is that there’s a level of intelligence and persistence in thieves that make physical security an intractable problem with exponential cost scaling as you patch “holes.”
So from a systems approach, the better solution likely is something like:
Employ and provide safety for the people stealing from the units so they do not feel compelled to steal.
Imagine if the money spent securing these things, which is a multiple of this persons efforts, were spent on solving the root cause? Sounds like a better return on investment
by 486sx33 on 10/6/24, 5:58 PM
Nothing gets broken into in Texas, when everyone has a gun, no one fucks around in the dark. Just sayin’
by saulrh on 10/6/24, 3:30 AM
```
    If you use the disc lock the storage facility sells, you'll likely
    pay an additional markup on it, but it's also guaranteed to be
    acceptable to their partner insurance company.
```
I'm surprised - I'd have expected the facility's locks to be guaranteed to be unacceptable so as to minimize the insurance company's payouts. Insurance agencies already do worse on a daily basis, this level of consumer-hostile bullshit would barely even register.