Getting yourself some tenant storage usually isn’t exactly cheap. With that in mind, you probably want to optimize your security for them. As we all know, security is oftentimes just an act to make people feel safer. That being said, security theater isn’t enough to cut it every single time. If things look secure but are still regularly broken into, your tenants will lose faith in your units and could easily just go to an off-site storage provider. That can be bad news for your bottom line, especially if you’re hoping to get a good return on investment.
There are a few steps that you can take to make your storage units be more secure both in appearance and in practice. Most of these steps are pretty easy and might even be things that you’ve already done to your property. Today we’re going to be looking at some of the best and biggest tips that security experts around the world agree can make a world of difference. Some of them will be small things and others might be a little bigger than you want to plan for, but by the end of this article, you’re sure to have a solid idea of how you can keep your tenant lockers as secure as possible.
Table of Contents
Install Some Security Cameras
For centuries humans have pondered if it’s possible to keep an eye on something without having to have someone physically posted to watch it. Back in the middle ages, something like this would be considered witchcraft but in the modern-day, this task is easily done enough with a few hundred dollars worth of hardware on the cheaper side of things. That is going to be one of your most invaluable tools for increasing the security of your storage lockers.
Of course, you may occasionally have thieves of varying skill levels. Most thieves are the type that is better suited for smash and grab type robberies, meaning that they’re more likely to break something with force, grab the valuables, than run. That type of thief is pretty easily caught because they tend to make a lot of noise. No matter what the criminal is doing, if their plan is to play is loose and fast, that also means that they’ll probably be loud and sloppy. Your security cameras would be able to find evidence of their crimes pretty easily.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are criminals that have a plan with the tools and skills to back it up. Smarter criminals tend to play things in a more cool and calculated manner. This type of thief is much more likely to get away with their crimes, but they’re also more likely to make sure that they aren’t making reckless choices. That can mean a few things. Either they notice that your complex has security cameras up and they won’t risk it or they won’t notice that there are security cameras up and go for it just to be caught later on.
Install Enough Lighting
You never know who or what is lurking in the shadows. Our eyes need a certain level of light to be able to see, and many cameras on the cheaper end of things do, as well. The way that light works is certainly interesting. The particles fly through the air from whatever their source is at the fastest possible speed in the universe. It’s called, as you probably know, the speed of light and it is about 186,000 miles a second, or 300,000 kilometers a second for our international readers.
The light particles are expressed by the wavelengths in the solids that we see, which creates different colors. As humans, we have a very limited range of colors that we’re able to see, but we digress. Keeping your complex well lit will scare off most honest and smart thieves because the better people can see them, the more likely that they are to be caught in the act. Every thief wants to be able to hit their mark and escape without being detected, or at the very least without being able to be identified after the fact.
Lighting up the area where you keep the storage lockers simply makes it so any potential thief won’t have the advantage of the cover of darkness at night. That can help your security cameras pick up more clear images of them and can also make it easier for your tenants to identify suspicious people that are lurking near the storage area. It’s a win-win for you and your tenants while making anyone who intends to break into your storage unit’s job a lot more difficult. Installing lights can also be relatively cheap and can improve the overall safety of your apartment complex.
Consider Adding a Gate to the Storage Area
Gates, fences, and walls all exist for similar purposes. Making an area harder to access. Of course, many fences can be jumped pretty easily but it can also be pretty difficult depending on the fence. Installing a fence around your storage area could deter even more potential thieves. The more secure the actual site where the storage lockers are is, the safer the lockers will be from people that would want to break into them. Remember, at the end of the day your goal is to get potential thieves to turn around because breaking in would be too much effort.
Today you can even find all sorts of fancy locking systems for gates that use access codes or keycards to further ensure security. By using something like a keycard you then make it so your thief needs to be a hacker more than a pickpocket, and most criminal hackers are entirely uninterested in unlocking those gates because there are a lot of other things that they can do that are less traceable and will make them a lot more money than anything your tenants could have on them.
When deterring thieves, you have to know the kind of people that you’d typically be dealing with so you can strategize based on that. The type of people that would consider breaking into an apartment complex’s storage lockers are probably looking for an easy score. They want something that’s low risk with a medium reward. In most cases, if they’re going to hit an apartment complex they probably aren’t the world’s most skilled thieves, meaning that there’s a good chance that simple security measures will be enough to scare them off. There are, of course, always exceptions to these rules but accounting for outliers is always difficult.
Hire Overnight Security
The most likely time for a thief to strike would be overnight. It’s dark, most people are asleep, it’s a perfect storm for a thief. The less likely someone thinks it is for them to be caught, the more likely they are to be brazen in their efforts. All the security cameras and lights in the world can only make sure someone gets caught after the fact, but it can be hard for such measures to stop someone before they’re able to flee with the goods they just stole from your tenants.
That’s why some people would go so far as to hire an overnight security guard to keep watch over the storage lockers. Having someone there that could potentially overpower a thief will deter even more thieves than the previous recommendations combined. Thieves don’t want to be caught, and having a figure out authority stand right by the area that they intend to burgle can make them have second thoughts and turn back. We want to give the thief as many chances as possible to reconsider what they’re doing before they make a mistake that will impact their life, your life, and the life of your tenant in a very negative way.
Now, of course, if someone wants into your apartment complex’s storage lockers badly enough, they’ll be able to find a way. It’s unlikely that you would get a security system good enough for Fort Knox for these storage units even if you could afford it, meaning that if someone plans ahead they could circumvent everything that you’ve set up to prevent such a theft. If there’s a lock, it can be opened one way or another. With that being said, all you can do is plan for what you expect.
Finding the Best Security Strategy
Planning to make your storage lockers secure can be a pain. There are a lot of things that you need to think about in order to circumvent even the most inexperienced thief. Fortunately, by planning things out you can make sure that the vast majority of would-be thieves don’t stand a chance of getting into your storage lockers. People specialize in making things as secure as possible and these security experts are able to pinpoint exactly where the weaknesses in your security system lie by thinking like the very thieves they try to foil, and you can do the very same.