Public Storage Public Storage Airdrome St My unit was broken in to and all my property stolen and their insurance company declined my claim because the lock was intact and no signs of forceful break in! Suspicious activity going on here. Los Angeles, California

I regret that your items were stolen at this Public Storage facility.  As an expert in self storage theft and security issues, I can attest that laminated padlocks are easily picked or "jimmied".  I lost my keys to my own storage space and simply picked my own discus lock yesterday.  What is probably happening at this facility is that a current customer is using his/her, probably his access to test the locks of existing customers.   There are several ways to defeat padlocks and this individual has found a fertile facility to steal from.  In most cases, the break-ins are not caused by employees as they know that insured losses will not be paid if forcible entry is not made.  Most insurance carriers will exclude losses that do not demonstrate forcible entry.  Therefore, it is unlikely that employees are involved.  The best defense to self storage theft is to purchase a high quality padlock, preferably one with "mushroom" pins and to continue to insure your property.  My guess is that the thefts occurred at the same time and tenants are just now discovering the thefts.  While I know that this explanation offers no consolation too you, it at least explains what may have happened.  Next time, purchase a high quality padlock and look for facilities that have individual door alarms.  Sorry about your loss...

Again, this has been a reoccurring event at this location, and all cases are similar where they leave no sign of forced entry. So whoever is doing this is well aware of company policy and is able to get away with theft based on what it says in the contract. And I'm not necessarily blaming the employees but more the company "Public Storage" who has been negligent to this problem by not tightening down on security and cameras or at least warning the tenant ahead of time.

 I have better things to do than to sit here and think up conspiracies or try to bring down the reputation of establishment. And I specially don't have time to play detective monitoring security and activity...I believe this is the responsiblity of Public Storage. It's why I paid them money to use their facilities/services...and their useless insurance.

It's important that people know what's really going on!

I have read different complaints about break-ins, late fees, units being auctioned ect... What it sounds like to me is that no one reads contracts anymore. It states in the contract that you are storing at "YOUR OWN RISK"! and that you will not hold the company responsible for any loss or damage to your items.  What everyone failed to realize is that these storage facilities have any where from 300 to over 1,000 units and even more which means you have over 300 to 1,000 people coming in and out of these properties on a daily basis. When people come and rent at these storage facilities we all assume that they  need the storage due to them moving, needing more space at home or bottom line some are renting just to get easy access to your things. There are people out there that do this for a living. The company will never know since background checks and finger printing are not required at the time of rental. We as the renters need to understand the facts this is a "PUBLIC FACILITY" and it is open to the public. The employees have to treat everyone equally and have to assume that if you are there to rent its for  storing and not vandalize people storage spaces. 

All I can say it we can not blame the employees for your items being stolen. Considering that there was no forced entry to your space. You have given this particular site a bad name making people believe that the people they trust are the ones breaking into there space. You need proof before you can accuse anyone especially an employee. (Not sure if you was given a reason to think this.) What I would suggest is to read your contract when storing anywhere. The fine print tells it all. If you ever decide to store again look at the security and pay attention to the activity at that site and most important spend the extra cash on a good secure lock.   GOOD LUCK!

Nobody else had copies of my keys. According to the police my lock was picked.

Did you provide a key to anyone else?  I mean if there was no forced entry, then someone took your key and opened your storage closet.