A string of break-ins have been plaguing Otter Self Storage on Oro Blanco Drive in East Colorado Springs. In the most recent incident, tenant Dwyane Conkle's unit was broken into twice within three weeks.
Conkle opened his unit and found many of his tools and military gear, including body armor and pocket knives, were stolen, but other expensive items remained. Unfortunately, three week later, his unit was broken into again in the exact same manner, and these other items were stolen.
Conkle said all the items stolen totaled about $18,000. After the second break-in, Conkle moved out of the storage facility citing the lack of security measures.
“After my first incident when we had like seven or so units broken into, you would have thought that they would have hired somebody or something like that,” Conkle said. “But they did nothing. They didn't increase [security] and had nobody on site.”
A local news team KRDO13, visited the facility but found the office on site locked and no staff on site (Otter Self Storage is a fully automated, remote managed facility). The news team then contacted the facility's call center. "Multiple representatives said they couldn’t comment but directed us to the company’s legal team," reports KRDO13. "We are still waiting for a response."
“Clearly, it's a problem that's ongoing,” Conkle said. “They do nothing to fix it or mitigate the issue. If you're not going to take an active role in providing security for a business that you're securing goods, then you're not a good business.”
The Colorado Springs Police Department said it received seven burglary calls at the Otter Self Storage facility in March and nearly 30 calls in the last year. For more about self storage security, visit MSM's Security Page.