14 Keys to prevent theft in your storage room
It may seem unbelievable, but nowadays, with increasingly smaller apartments and a greater accumulation of belongings, the lack of space has become a more frequent problem for people. Having a storage room in the garage has gone from being a luxury to a necessity. In fact, most new housing constructions come with built-in storage rooms.
However, despite storage rooms being a wonderful solution for providing extra space that we don’t have at home, they have become a great danger due to the increasing specialized theft targeting these areas. Fortunately, there are different ways to protect ourselves and minimize the risks of theft.
Here are the 14 best tricks to prevent theft in storage rooms:
1. Install an invisible lock
A good solution to prevent theft in your storage room is to install an invisible lock. This type of lock is installed on the inside of the door in such a way that it cannot be seen from the outside and is opened using remote controls. Previously, they were relatively expensive, but nowadays their price has significantly decreased, as you can see for yourself in this link, where you will find a perfect invisible lock for storage rooms at a very affordable price.
Installing an invisible lock in our storage room is an ideal solution because it prevents thieves from forcing it and, moreover, it doesn’t attract attention since it is not visible from the outside. This is very important because if we were to install a second lock on the door instead of an invisible lock, it would be evident that we keep belongings of certain value inside our storage room. Furthermore, it could be easily forced, just like the main lock.
2. Avoid storing valuable and easily resalable items
The most coveted items by storage room thieves are objects and articles that can be easily sold in the second-hand market, especially sports equipment that doesn’t fit in our homes such as skis, bicycles, rackets, climbing gear, etc.
In fact, during the famous waves of storage room thefts, where gangs of criminals target entire communities, their modus operandi consists of opening all the easily accessible storage rooms and quickly taking these types of products we have mentioned, while leaving unharmed the storage rooms without such items, despite having other possessions of certain value and having already forced the doors and locks.
Therefore, even though it may be very convenient and practical to keep certain objects like bicycles or skis in storage rooms, it is best to keep them at home or in other safer places.
Moreover, it is obvious that valuable items such as jewelry, artwork, or antiques should never be stored in a storage room. It is better to keep these types of highly valuable objects in a safe within your home or in a well-hidden and secure place inside the house.
3. Take extra precautions during Christmas
Although it may seem that the storage room is the right place to store your Christmas gifts for a few days, it is not advisable at all. Thieves are aware of this, and every year, some families receive a visit from the “Magi of the Storage Rooms” who take advantage of the carelessness of a few to seize the family’s purchases before the designated day.
Outside of these specific dates, storing gifts temporarily for a birthday is not a bad idea if you don’t have any other place or if you don’t want to risk the lucky person discovering your surprise. However, make sure to store them for a short period of time and whenever possible, keep them at home.
4. Do not display valuable objects
During storage room thefts, thieves often tamper with the ventilation grilles of the doors to take a peek inside. If they see something interesting, they then force the lock to open the door and steal the desired items. Otherwise, they simply move on to the next door. It is also common for them to force as many easily accessible locks as possible, opening the maximum number of storage rooms, and quickly stealing the most valuable objects that are in plain sight.
For this reason, if you cannot store your most valuable belongings at home and must keep them in the storage room, try to keep them out of sight.
In addition to not displaying valuable objects, it is important to try and store your most valuable items in the most inaccessible places in your storage room. In case someone forces the door of your storage room and enters, they will try to quickly steal some of your belongings but, obviously, they won’t spend half an hour moving boxes, furniture, and objects to verify all your belongings and steal only the most valuable ones.
This advice can easily be implemented for certain items such as skis, which, being seasonal items, make it more manageable to store them at the back of the storage room at the end of the winter season. However, for other items that you use frequently, like a bicycle, it is more challenging to follow this advice since it’s more convenient to have it easily accessible. Nevertheless, if you don’t have any other place to store your bicycle, keeping it out of sight at the back of the storage room is the safest option, or at least covering it with blankets or easily movable objects.
5. Install window grilles
In case the storage rooms are at street level or if any part of the parking connecting to the storage rooms is at street level and has windows, it is essential to have protective grilles. Otherwise, any thief could force a window and gain unrestricted access to the interior of the storage area. Therefore, it is also important for neighbors to be careful and not allow strangers to enter the communal garage while the parking gate is opening or closing. It is crucial that only residents can access the storage area.
Similarly, if the storage rooms have windows, anti-theft grilles should be installed.
6. Install an alarm
Remember that storage rooms are perfect places for thieves to steal, as they are usually located away from residential units, next to the garages. This means that during the early morning hours, they are completely unattended by any neighbors and isolated from the street and residential areas. Consequently, criminals can move freely and even make some noise while forcing locks, as there is no one around.
However, by installing a simple, rudimentary, and inexpensive alarm, any thief attempting to force the door of your storage room will trigger the alarm, and the audible activation will make the thieves flee immediately. You don’t need to acquire a state-of-the-art alarm; nowadays, there are many effective alarms available for this type of situation. For example, in the following link, we show you a perfect alarm for storage rooms that you can purchase at a very affordable price.
7. Display an alarm sign
A highly effective way to deter thieves from storage rooms is by displaying alarm warning signs. You don’t need to install an actual alarm; simply placing some stickers will completely discourage criminals, as they would prefer not to take any risks and instead focus on forcing other storage rooms in the community.
8. Community installation of security cameras and motion sensor lights
If you are concerned about the possibility of theft in your storage room due to the lack of security measures in the community of storage owners in your apartment building, it is likely that many other neighbors share the same concern.
Therefore, given the high criminality rate in storage rooms nowadays, it is not a bad idea to propose the installation of security cameras at the entrances to the storage area to the community. You can propose it without any issues during the annual community owners’ meeting. Nowadays, these security elements are very affordable, and their installation may not even result in an increase in community fees.
Once the surveillance cameras are installed alongside warning signs, the storage rooms will be much safer, as no criminal will take the risk and would prefer to rob in another apartment building.
Similarly, low-cost motion sensor lights could be installed, so that if someone enters the storage area, everything would be well illuminated, causing a significant deterrent effect for someone with malicious intentions (it is always preferable to steal in darkness and complete anonymity).
Furthermore, to ensure maximum security in the access to the storage rooms, they are usually located in the parking area. If the parking area has elevator access, it is always safer to restrict access to the parking and storage areas from the elevator using a key, as anyone can access the communal elevator (delivery personnel, mail carriers, advertisers, etc.). Thus, with this simple elevator security system, only residents can access the storage rooms.
Finally, for complete security within the residential community, the hiring of a security guard or doorman could be considered. This measure may seem costly, but if there are many neighbors in the building, even if it is not a luxury residential complex, the cost can be shared among all residents, resulting in a not excessively high increase in community fees.
9. Install a quality lock
Let’s be realistic: many storage room locks are a complete joke. In fact, I have personally encountered storage rooms where a single key can open any door of any storage room, which is truly lamentable.
With that in mind, try to have a lock that doesn’t stand out compared to the rest of the locks but at least meets the minimum security requirements.
10. Install resistant and quality doors
It’s unbelievable, but despite the high number of thefts in storage rooms, even in new constructions, flimsy doors are still being installed. It’s true! Many times, these doors can be easily opened with a simple kick.
That’s why it’s recommended to install doors that are resistant and of decent quality. However, it’s crucial to undertake this action collectively with the entire community. Otherwise, this measure could backfire by drawing attention and giving the impression that your storage room contains high-value items compared to other storage rooms with simpler doors.
11. Be cautious of anyone spying on you when storing items
Surprisingly, in many cases, thefts in storage rooms have been carried out by neighbors residing in the same building. Just think about it: any neighbor has complete access to the area, lives there, and gets to know other residents. They may see or have an idea of what each person has stored. In the event of an attempted robbery, no one would suspect a thing since the neighbor also has a storage room, making it normal for them to be in the storage area even at 3 in the morning. Disturbing, isn’t it?
Obviously, you don’t need to become overly paranoid and sneak around your own storage room, but it’s always advisable to exercise caution and discretion.
12. Regularly visit your storage room
Considering the low quality of locks in storage rooms in our country, coupled with the high level of specialization of certain criminal gangs, we face a situation where not only do we have a high risk of being robbed, but we also face a high risk of not even realizing it. There have been cases where the level of specialization of thieves has been so high that they left no trace of the committed theft.
For this reason, it’s recommended to visit your storage room with some frequency. In addition to checking that everything is in order, you can also ensure there are no other issues such as the presence of insects or moisture that could damage your stored items.
13. Insure your storage room
If you don’t want to take any risks, want to store valuable items, and find none of the previous security measures sufficient, you can always opt to insure the contents of your storage room. However, make sure to insure the entire contents and verify the cases and exceptions in which your insurance would not cover potential damages, such as fire or deterioration of your belongings due to moisture or flooding.
Keep in mind that this type of insurance can be somewhat expensive, so unless you’re storing highly valuable items, it may not be worth it.
14. Rent an insured mini storage room
In addition to the previous option, if you want to avoid any risk of theft and have your belongings fully insured, the best option is to rent a mini storage room.
Nowadays, in any moderately large city, there are companies that offer the service of renting small storage units in a facility that is fully monitored 24/7 with high-level security measures. In these storage rooms, theft is virtually impossible, and in any case, your belongings will be insured.
What to do after a theft in your storage room?
Although it may seem futile, it’s highly recommended to report the theft to the police immediately. This will help gather evidence and take measures to prevent future robberies in the neighborhood, as well as potentially apprehend the responsible gang of criminals, which could lead to the recovery of some of the stolen items if they haven’t been sold on the black market yet.
Additionally, filing a police report is the first step in case you want to claim coverage from your insurance company for the stolen goods if you’re insured.
If you enjoyed this article on how to prevent theft in your storage room, you might also be interested in learning how to prevent burglaries in your home. If that’s the case, don’t miss the following article: “19 Keys to prevent burglaries at home during your vacation”.