Customers raise security concerns with storage facility after losing thousands of dollars of items from break-ins

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Two classic cars, letters between a Vietnam soldier and his wife, a father’s coin collection and family antiques. These are just a few of the items stolen during a break-in at a storage facility on the east side of Colorado Springs — a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for customers.

On Mar. 19, the Roberts family arrived at the Otter Self Storage facility at 4526 Oro Blanco Drive and noticed the latch to their unit looked weird. The Roberts had owned their unit for the last five years.

When they opened the it, the entire place was ransacked and their most valuable family heirloom — a 1964 Karmann Ghia — was gone.

“My grandma's 1964 Karmann Ghia was gone,” Kallie Roberts said. “It was passed down to my mom and had lots of meaning to us. Beautiful convertible. It just had a lot of meaning. We can't replace things that were from my grandparents. It's pretty heartbreaking.”

Roberts said three bikes, renaissance clothing and armor and family antiques were some of the other items stolen — a loss of nearly $30,000. While going through their unit, they learned the entire building of seven units was broken into at least a month earlier.

“We learned that it had happened probably five weeks earlier and no one had contacted us, no police report happened, nothing,” Roberts said.

Joe Sokola was one of the first customers to find out about it. He owned two units attached to the same building as Roberts. He said he learned about the break-in on Feb. 14, when he stopped at his unit to pick up some items.

“I kind of noticed the latch on the other unit kind of looked funny, so I unlocked that unit and I noticed my car was missing,” Sokola said. “Then I opened the unit that I was going to go into and noticed it was a total mess, a disaster.”

His 1956 Imperial, worth about $35,000, was stolen, as well as his father’s coin collections and letters his father sent to his mother while serving in the Vietnam War.

“I felt kind of sick and violated, like my personal space has been violated,” Sokola said. “I don't even feel safe at home anymore.”

Sokola and Roberts said the storage facility received new ownership and changed its name to Otter Self Storage more than a year ago.

“The first company was great. They had someone on site to keep watch all the time. They had great security.”

When new ownership came in, Sokola said security suffered. An employee no longer lived on site and the office building remains vacant. He said the gate to the facility, which usually requires a code to enter, was left open when he found his units broken into.

“There is a problem with security features that they advertised, like the gates not working, cameras not working,” Sokola said. “They should notify their customers so their customers can maybe be more diligent.”

Roberts said empty storage units were often left unlocked, which she said is how the thieves ransacked the units.

“We believe they started on an end unit that was vacant and was not locked,” Roberts said. “Then they broke through the drywall from one unit to the next all the way through.”

Sokola said the storage unit next to his at the end of the building was empty and unlocked. While accessing his damage after the break-in, he said the plywood between the units was ripped off the wall. The same tactic was used to enter all seven units and steal thousands of dollars of items.

The Colorado Springs Police Department said three burglary reports have been filed and seven calls have been made involving burglary at that storage facility this year. The agency said it has been unable to contact the property to access video surveillance.

News outlets across the country have reported about poor security measures and break-ins at Otter Self Storage facilities. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, 90 units were broken into and customers received no response from Otter. In San Antonio, police received 65 calls for burglary at one Otter Storage facility within 6 months.

“We're concerned about Otter as a whole,” Roberts said. “We learned that hundreds of units were broken into around the country. And the same thing — they didn't report it to the police, they didn't report it to the customers.”

13 Investigates called multiple numbers associated with Otter Self Storage, but they all led to a national call center. One representative said she was aware of the break-ins at the Colorado Springs facility but didn’t have any more information about security measures.

“What I would like to have happen is Otter be responsible and not keep allowing this to happen all over the country and for our community to be aware that they shouldn't rent here.”