By Alex Hassel, Storage.com
There’s a fence surrounding your self storage property. You have security cameras, and every one of your units are locked up tight. You do everything you can to keep your business and your tenants’ property safe, but it still happens. Burglars break in and steal from self storage facilities all the time.
A case that’s recently turned heads across the country is the story about two Fort Bragg soldiers who have been charged for breaking in and stealing at Highway 401 Storage in Fayetteville, N.C. Jace James Louis Buras, age 19, and Dominique Lamar Schumpert, age 23, were both arrested for their alleged role in the burglaries on Oct. 3. Each man is facing around 30 charges, including misdemeanors and felonies.
Teresa Sprankle, owner of Highway 401 Storage, discovered the crime several hours after it happened. She believes the suspects first accessed the facility by cutting through a fence at the back of the five-acre property. With 12 security cameras on site, there was surveillance video of two men. One was wearing a black and white mask, and both wore gloves. Those images were taken just before one of the suspects allegedly smashed 11 of the cameras with a shovel. The two reportedly pried cylinder locks from more than 20 units, damaging the metal doors. The men are accused of stealing many items, including a vehicle.
With a security fence, surveillance cameras, and cylinder locks, it’s plain to see that a self storage owner like Sprankle takes security seriously. However, despite the obstacles, criminals still found a way through.
There could be a new hope coming from the security world, though. Steel door manufacturer Janus International and self storage security company PTI Security Systems have teamed up to create a new layer of defense for self storage facilities. Their product is called SecurGuard Electronic Lock. The companies label it as an electronic lock/overlock/monitor for roll-up doors.
“We are the first to release an interior of the unit lock with these features,” says Terry Bagley, Vice President of Business Development at Janus International.
The companies say the device is easy to install and easy to use. It starts with an interior lock on the floor near the corner of the door. When you shut the unit’s door, it clicks into a lock inside. The lock system is small. With it, there’s no loss of usable square footage in the storage unit. Bagley says the interior lock alone makes the unit more safe and secure.
“When the roll-up door is closed, the lock provides additional security for your current tenants by locking the door on the interior of the unit [securing the door from the inside], making it more difficult to access and compromise the lock and the contents of the unit,” he says.
With the internal lock, what happens if a tenant gets shut inside? Janus wanted to make it simple. There’s an emergency release button on top of the lock, and it glows in the dark.
So if you’re outside the unit, how do you open a door with an interior lock? That’s where PTI Security Systems comes in. There are two options. One is to enter a code into PTI’s electronic keypad panel outside the door. Or employees and tenants can unlock the door with their smartphones. All renters have to do is download the EasyCode smartphone app.
For operators or managers, they’ll use the StorLogix app. Once the app is downloaded, type in the code there, and the door is unlocked. If you choose the mobile app route, it comes with a number of other features. Not only can you lock and unlock the door, but you can also view access history and get emails or smartphone notifications if the door unlocks or opens.
Jon Loftin, Vice President of PTI Security Systems, says instant activity alarms will be vital for self storage in the future. “If you have a security incident at your property, you need to know immediately. Otherwise, you can have multiple units broken into and end up on the nightly news. This is a proactive way to provide security to the facility and the customers. Cameras are a reactive security measure, which only records the incident instead of preventing it.”
When a tenant or employee is finished at a unit, shutting the door automatically activates the lock and arms the monitoring system. Access to the lock system is based on rental management’s software and its integration with the PTI StorLogix software. Operators can choose when access codes work, and even designate a managerial authorization code.
Janus International and PTI Security Systems believe the SecurGuard Electronic Lock provides a good opportunity for the self storage industry to improve security.
Bagley says SecurGuard allows management to access and secure both occupied and vacant units. “It also keeps your vacant units secure from tenants, or others, from accessing the unit and leaving unwanted items in the units (for you to dispose of at your cost),” he says.
Loftin says the device will free up a lot of time for employees. “The ability to take away a lot of the time consuming functions that a manager performs (locking and unlocking vacant units, locking and unlocking delinquent units) will give them more time to perform functions that bring in revenue like renting units and collecting rent,” he says.
Janus also believes with the added lock and necessary security codes, SecurGuard could be the answer to running an unstaffed facility. Bagley calls it the “last link in fully automating the unattended move-in process, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In combination with rental management software, it allows the operator to fully automate the operational processes and run the facility with reduced labor, or none at all.”
On that same front, Janus says SecurGuard supports online, call center, and kiosk rentals as well. In those cases where a tenant has booked a unit beforehand, and the first time they’re at the facility is when they’re moving in, all they’ll need for entry is an access code.
The SecurGuard Electonic Lock lists at $69.99 per unit. It comes with a one-year warranty from Janus International. The product is currently in beta testing at a number of facilities in North America and Europe. The wide release is expected in the first quarter of 2016.
Images provided by Janus International and PTI Security Systems
