This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The thieves are sometimes as wily as they come, executing complex schemes to get to their prize.
In many cases, their plans take so much effort to reach fruition — often for little financial gain — police are left wondering why the burglars bother.
But still the thieves continue to prey on Utahns who store the remnants of their lives inside rental self-storage lockers. The thieves can strike anywhere and at any time, and Provo police have been the most recent Utah department to notice a spike in the number of reported self-storage locker thefts. Since January, the department has received reports of 18 break-ins, said police spokesman Sgt. Mathew Siufanua.
"It's hard to predict and hard to concentrate on and to try to prevent because [the thieves] just come out of nowhere and do these things and then they're gone again," said South Salt Lake police spokesman Gary Keller.
Solving the cases of storage locker break-ins can be tricky because victims often don't visit their storage units frequently, so weeks can go by without anyone knowing they've been hit, giving the crooks a head start.
And as storage facilities and police ratchet up efforts to deter thieves and educate residents, criminals respond in kind by increasing their levels of creativity.
In early January, for instance, Provo renters were startled to discover their storage lockers had been broken into in a most peculiar manner.
From all outside appearances, their lockers appeared untouched and locked securely, and even the storage complex management was none the wiser. But Siufanua said the thieves discovered a weakness at the complex: they realized that the storage facility management didn't bother to secure its vacant lockers.
"If you gain access into one storage shed, you've got access to them all," he said.
So the thieves simply sneaked inside an empty, unsecured unit and then wreaked havoc on the paying customers' secured lockers.
Siufanua said the thieves came equipped with tools and tunneled through the sheetrock walls, knocking man-sized holes into the walls of about a dozen units, all the while raiding the storage units. Then, having made their selections, the thieves simply left through the first unit and walked away to freedom.
"They stole everything," Siufanua said.
He said they took weights, books, electronics, a bicycle and even shelves. When police combed the local pawn shops looking for the stolen loot, they came up empty.
"We haven't been able to locate any of their property," he said. The complex didn't have any surveillance footage, so police have little to go on.
"You have to look at it from a victim's eyes," he said. "For them, it was worth a million dollars."
No arrests have been made in the case, and police are hoping the public can help them catch the culprits before they strike again.
In the past, Keller said South Salt Lake detectives have seen people climb up the walls to enter other people's units through gaps in the rafters or even rent their own storage units to get access to others.
Over the summer in South Salt Lake, a victim discovered someone had broken into his locker and stolen items, including a flat-screen TV and a homemade air compressor.
Surveillance footage captured the thief using a gate code that was assigned to him so he could access his storage unit. But instead of going to his own unit, the thief went to the victim's, according to a criminal complaint filed in 3rd District Court.
Once there, Keller said the thieves apparently cut the lock, then emptied the victim's storage unit, rifled through it, took what they wanted and threw all the items they didn't want back inside. Before leaving, Keller said, the thieves then resecured the victim's unit, using their own lock.
South Salt Lake police later recovered the stolen items — and at least one other person's property — inside the suspect's home, along with drug paraphernalia.
Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal said his department occasionally gets reports of such thefts, but most of the thieves use typical methods to steal property.
"Most of the time for us it's just cutting the lock off," he said.
In the end, police say the best way to prevent becoming a victim is to make it as difficult as possible for thieves by choosing rental facilities that have good security, frequent patrols and reputable tenants.
"It's all about reducing your risk of becoming a victim," Siufanua said. "Nothing is 100 percent. Our focus is on making these guys work harder."
Twitter: @sltribjanelle —
Keeping your storage locker safe
Use disc locks instead of the typical padlock because they're harder to cut.
Make sure the facility requires photo ID.
Walk around the complex in the day and at night. Is it well-lit? Are there security cameras? Are all the storage units, even the empty ones, locked? Are there gate hours posted and no-trespassing signs?
Ask how often the facility has someone walking the property. The more frequent the patrols, the better.
Does the unit require at least three emergency contacts? Those can be used to help check the credibility of renters.
Source: Provo police