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Best Locks For Storage Units?
QUESTION:What are the best locks for storage units? The locks which are the
least easy to cut or pick? [Some stuff was stolen from my storage
unit.]
ANSWER: -You can't really depend on any lock to be "unbreakable". There's no
such thing, at least not in the small locks that fit on storage units.
(If there was, then storage units probably wouldn't allow them - they
have to be able to break in if the owner stops paying the bill.)
I had a relative who kept a storage unit for a couple of years. He
hadn't opened it in over a year, and he asked me to go and check on it.
He gave me the combination to the lock, but either I wrote it down wrong
or the lock was not working after not being used in so long. I couldn't
get it open. I showed the owner my ID and asked him to cut it off.
This was a supposedly "heavy duty, theft proof" lock but he got it off
in 30 seconds with a set of heavy duty bolt cutters.
Some locks are so flimsy that anyone could break them off, but no lock
is going to keep out someone who is determined and has tools and time.
If possible, try to get a storage unit with at least some minimal
security around it - a high fence and some lights, at least. That
wouldn't stop a determined thief either, but it might make them go elsewhere.
-When you say some stuff was stolen, you hit it right on the mark. The
key to not being broken into is
to give the appearance there is nothing of value in the house or the
storage locker. Locks almost never
do it. My best suggestion is to install a noraml lock. But somehow
install a 2x4 or 2x6 (bar) across the
locker door on the inside then by using a pulley or two using plastic
coated clothiline run it to an obscure area or a small fake front area
or a small door the size of a hand or fist with its own lock. The key
is that the theif can remove the lock but this device effectively
prevent access. It takes a bit of ingenunity but it is quite effective
on a house door or a locker and fairly cheap. Of course, when you pull
on the clothes line behind the small fist sized door or false front, it
lifts the bar and allow the door to be opened.
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