I'm helping a friend get the word out:
My husband and I would like to alert you about the Public Storage Facility on 6501 Shellmound Street, Emeryville, California, 94608. We stored our entire household contents there in November of 2006 after selling our house in preparation for our move to Portland.
On February 14, 2007, we went to our unit and found that we had been burglarized two weeks earlier. Eleven units had been broken into in December 2006, and then 27 more units in February 2007. We were not notified of the burglaries, though the caretaker George said he checked every unit and called renters who had been hit. No one that was not burglarized was notified and there were no postings alerting renters of the events.
Our lock had not been cut. The bolts to the roll down doors are made of cheap aluminum and ours was snipped. All of our family dishes, the contents of our entire kitchen, 4 large bins of power tools, and 13 musical instruments were taken, as well as personal decorative and family items. Many things were not worth a lot of money but are completely irreplaceable.
Additionally, we were called by the Emeryville Police Department in May 2007 to come to Public Storage because stolen boxes were found in an empty unit. The caretaker George discovered them, and said they had shown up two weeks before. This indicates that the stolen goods are likely stored at the Facility, and still may be. Public Storage will not authorize a search of the facility, and the Police Department did not return calls to discuss this latest development.
When we initially filed our police report, the Emeryville Police Department described Public Storage as "a joke" to us, saying they get broken into regularly - numerous times a year.
George denies this. When we asked him what Public Storage would be doing about this, he said that 'Corporate' will not let him lock the buildings down at night, nor will they install security cameras, or apparently do anything to help.
To give you an idea of the laxness of the security, there is a door that is locked to the public, but one only needs to hold it gently to not let it close all the way, and it stays propped open, and will not latch. On almost every visit to Public Storage, we have found this door open - including after hours. All storage units are accessible to the public. The large buildings containing the smaller storage units have no locking doors. Elevators are left on after hours and are also not locked down.
If you are already storing there, and you do not have a roll down door, please take care anyway. We found many of the regular doors have cheap hinges that face out into the hall. To completely remove the door, you need only a flathead screwdriver. Locks are useless there. The buildings are empty almost every time we go there.
The moral of this story is: Caution! Make sure to do your homework before you store your things in a storage facility! There are storage facilities close by in Oakland and Berkeley that have great security (cameras, no entry without signing in in-person, effective lock-down hours, main buildings are locked at night, insurance policies reimburse for full amount in event of burglary) which we only learned after the fact. This was our own mistake in a big way. Had we done better research and read our insurance policy more closely, we would not be in this situation.
The Emeryville PD, and Public Storage and George have done nothing to the minimum to help us. The entire experience is a huge disappointment and pain in the ass. We are both very sad at the loss of some things that were important to us. In the future we will not store them in a facility if it can be helped.
We have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and are posting on-line.
We urge you to take your storage business elsewhere.
My husband and I would like to alert you about the Public Storage Facility on 6501 Shellmound Street, Emeryville, California, 94608. We stored our entire household contents there in November of 2006 after selling our house in preparation for our move to Portland.
On February 14, 2007, we went to our unit and found that we had been burglarized two weeks earlier. Eleven units had been broken into in December 2006, and then 27 more units in February 2007. We were not notified of the burglaries, though the caretaker George said he checked every unit and called renters who had been hit. No one that was not burglarized was notified and there were no postings alerting renters of the events.
Our lock had not been cut. The bolts to the roll down doors are made of cheap aluminum and ours was snipped. All of our family dishes, the contents of our entire kitchen, 4 large bins of power tools, and 13 musical instruments were taken, as well as personal decorative and family items. Many things were not worth a lot of money but are completely irreplaceable.
Additionally, we were called by the Emeryville Police Department in May 2007 to come to Public Storage because stolen boxes were found in an empty unit. The caretaker George discovered them, and said they had shown up two weeks before. This indicates that the stolen goods are likely stored at the Facility, and still may be. Public Storage will not authorize a search of the facility, and the Police Department did not return calls to discuss this latest development.
When we initially filed our police report, the Emeryville Police Department described Public Storage as "a joke" to us, saying they get broken into regularly - numerous times a year.
George denies this. When we asked him what Public Storage would be doing about this, he said that 'Corporate' will not let him lock the buildings down at night, nor will they install security cameras, or apparently do anything to help.
To give you an idea of the laxness of the security, there is a door that is locked to the public, but one only needs to hold it gently to not let it close all the way, and it stays propped open, and will not latch. On almost every visit to Public Storage, we have found this door open - including after hours. All storage units are accessible to the public. The large buildings containing the smaller storage units have no locking doors. Elevators are left on after hours and are also not locked down.
If you are already storing there, and you do not have a roll down door, please take care anyway. We found many of the regular doors have cheap hinges that face out into the hall. To completely remove the door, you need only a flathead screwdriver. Locks are useless there. The buildings are empty almost every time we go there.
The moral of this story is: Caution! Make sure to do your homework before you store your things in a storage facility! There are storage facilities close by in Oakland and Berkeley that have great security (cameras, no entry without signing in in-person, effective lock-down hours, main buildings are locked at night, insurance policies reimburse for full amount in event of burglary) which we only learned after the fact. This was our own mistake in a big way. Had we done better research and read our insurance policy more closely, we would not be in this situation.
The Emeryville PD, and Public Storage and George have done nothing to the minimum to help us. The entire experience is a huge disappointment and pain in the ass. We are both very sad at the loss of some things that were important to us. In the future we will not store them in a facility if it can be helped.
We have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and are posting on-line.
We urge you to take your storage business elsewhere.
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SF Bay Area
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