Whodunit? Slippery Rock woman uncovers string of storage unit thefts after discovering locker break-in
When her Venango Township storage locker was broken into earlier this month, Brittney Welsh was determined to find an answer, and while she’s yet to identify the culprits, she did piece together a portion of the trail left behind.
A Slippery Rock resident, Welsh, recently reported that thousands of dollars worth of personal belongings were taken from her storage locker at Eau Claire Sto-and-Go, including two televisions, taxidermied animals, winter sports gear, and family mementos.
When she learned that little could be done, she decided to take the investigation into her own hands. Her work determined that the culprits broke into more than 20 other lockers at the facility and also broke into lockers at another facility in Franklin Township.
Now, she is hoping to get the word out about the thefts in the hopes of catching the culprits.
“The whole thing’s crazy,” Welsh said. “It’s crazy that they could have gotten into two units multiple times and nobody knows anything.”
Welsh first became aware of the thefts when a stranger noticed some scattered family pictures along the side of Calico Road. The person, a resident of Clay Township, spotted Welsh’s name on the back of many of the photos and tracked down her phone number through her LinkedIn profile.
When the woman called Welsh at work on a Monday afternoon and told her what she found, she had no idea what to make of it.
“I got a phone call from a woman while I was at work,” Welsh said. “She said that she had found a bunch of my photos on Calico Road. And I looked it up and realized that my storage unit was 7 miles away from there.”
Sensing something was up, Welsh rushed to her storage unit at Eau Claire Sto-and-Go. Just as she feared, she found her storage unit had obviously been tampered with, as the lock on it was nowhere to be found. When she opened the door, she found that items inside the unit had been moved around, and containers which were secured with tape and straps had been pried open.
Not helping matters was the fact that the Sto-and-Go was not equipped with security cameras, and that it was located in an area with poor cell service.
“(The officer) said that there isn’t a whole lot that they can do,” Welsh said. “He said that with their resources and their time and availability, they’re not going to be able to do a whole bunch.”
The responding officer listed on the police report did not reply to a request for comment.
Welsh also found two mysterious boxes that were not previously there, which were addressed with a man’s name. She hadn’t found the culprits though, rather another victim.
After some searching, she found the boxes belonged to a man who told Welsh that he had been informed by his brother of a break-in at his storage unit at Ski Moisture Free Mini Storage in Franklin Township.
“He had just been notified by his brother earlier that day that his storage unit was broken into, because his brother has a unit beside him,” Welsh said. “And that’s kind of where the investigation’s halted, because I don’t know where to go from here.”
Self-storage facilities such as the Sto-and-Go and the Ski Moisture Free don’t typically have staff on site, according to Joe Gibson, owner of Eau Claire Sto-and-Go.
“They’re called self-storage, so therefore, it is not regulated,” Gibson said. “Now I’m sure in the larger cities, where people have to pay a lot more and are willing to, there may be special cards or gates. I think some facilities may even have a full-time person. But what you find out in the country here is simply a facility that has lockers.”
Gibson said he is taking the matter seriously and is keeping in touch with Welsh as the situation develops. The recent theft isn’t the first time Gibson has had to deal with criminal activity at his business, as the Sto-and-Go was vandalized with obscene graffiti earlier this year.
“We had to go out and wash everything we could off. Some of the masonry, we couldn’t wash off,” Gibson said. “So I just leave it there like I don’t care, but I do care.”
At least one positive thing has come out of the thefts — Gibson has installed a set of four trail cameras at the Eau Claire Sto-and-Go as a security measure. He is also considering installing a fence around the property.
“That’s what I’m considering right now,” Gibson said. “I’m trying to get some pricings on that, and it’s going to be around $20,000 to do that.”
