My storage unit was broken into, along with several others, despite Extra Space Storage's claims of it being a secure facility. Extra Space Storage never told me it was broken into -- I only discovered it myself six months later. They also refused to give me a copy of the video for my insurance claim.
I rented a storage unit from Extra Space Storage in July of 2017. I went abroad for a while, so I moved all my stuff into it and left the country at the beginning of September.
Only a week after I left, a guy that lives next the storage unit building broke into my second-floor unit and several others. The units have wire mesh roofs, so he cut the roofs of the others. With mine, he pried the sliding lock from the latch so he could open the door of my unit. I had two padlocks on mine, and neither were cut.
The guy stole four nice bikes and all of my tools -- about $5000 in stuff. He walked all over the rest of my possessions, damaging lots of stuff.
The police quickly caught the guy -- he's a well known thief, and given the location, they went right to him. The police recovered two of my bikes, but not the other two, and none of my tools.
Despite the break-ins of other units and my storage unit having damage that was clearly visible from the outside, Extra Space Storage never told me that my storage unit was broken into. I only discovered it when I returned to the US six months later. Since the latch was damaged, my storage unit was left unlocked for six months.
The thief was arrested, tried, and sentenced by the time I returned to Baltimore. Normally if someone steals your stuff, you can file a restitution claim, making reimbursement part of their sentence. Had Extra Space Storage told me in September, I could have filed a restitution claim, and I probably would have had a better shot at getting my stuff back, too.
I asked Extra Space Storage what happened. They told me that the guy broke into the building, the alarms went off, and the police caught him coming out of the building. The police said something totally different -- that other people reported the thefts, not Extra Space Storage, and there weren't any alarms.
I also asked Extra Space Storage for a copy of the video for insurance purposes. My claim will go more smoothly if I have a video showing this guy walking out with my stuff. Extra Space Storage said they deleted the video!!!! Why, when a bunch of units were broken into, and in an era when a one-terabyte flash drive is $15, would you delete the video?!?!?
So basically, Extra Space Storage is not at all a secure facility, they tried to evade responsibility for the thefts, didn't tell me when my unit was broken into, and wouldn't provide the video from the thefts. read more