‘Very upsetting’: Thieves hit Fort Worth storage units twice; $50K in rare items lost

Craig Snyder and Angela Kirkwood’s dream of opening a game room was about to become a reality when two back-to-back burglaries of their Fort Worth indoor storage unit put their plans on hold.

Thieves broke into Public Storage in Near Southside along Interstate 35W and made off with rare video games, consoles, special-edition comic books and a new arcade machine. Aside from the devastation of losing so much, the couple is angry over the handling of the burglaries by Public Storage, which is the largest owner and operator of storage units in the country.

“It feels like we paid Public Storage $300 to lose $50,000 worth of our belongings,” Snyder told the Star-Telegram.

The couple rented the Public Storage unit at 625 Stella St. in late September to store items they’d bought to furnish their game room. Snyder, from Florida, planned to move to Fort Worth at the end of October and secure the game room location. Kirkwood, who already lives in the area, found the Public Storage unit where she thought their things would be safe.

Kirkwood said she did her research before signing a rental agreement for the 10-by-30 indoor, climate-controlled unit. The online reviews were positive, and when she visited the facility, employees assured her the premises had 24/7 security.

On Monday, just three days after moving in the last of the gaming equipment, Kirkwood got a call from a Public Storage employee. The two locks on their unit, including their $130 padlock, had been cut.

Police records list a total of seven burglary victims at that location Monday without specifying the number of units affected.

According to Snyder, about half of their game room supplies were taken.

Their storage unit items were insured through Orange Door, Kirkwood said, which is a subsidiary of Public Storage. The insurance claims examiner instructed Kirkwood to leave the rest of the items in the unit. Kirkwood agreed and put a new padlock on the door before leaving the premises Monday.

On Wednesday, Kirkwood got another call from a Public Storage employee asking if she had vacated the unit.

“He said, ‘Well, your lock is gone again,’” Kirkwood said. “And I’m like, ‘Awesome. You guys got broken into again for the second time in three days. No extra measures, nothing.’ And he started like rattling off apologies to me, and I’m like, ‘Why didn’t you guys do anything?’”

Kirkwood said she found the broken lock inside the unit, which was nearly empty after the second burglary. Kirkwood and Snyder estimate they lost about $50,000 worth of video game equipment and related items in the two break-ins.

Fort Worth police have responded to Public Storage on Stella Street for break-in calls 13 times so far this year, according to police records. Items stolen from storage units included two new Samsung TVs, an Xbox One, an espresso machine, a set of luggage, jewelry and a gold watch.

Kirkwood said she feels as if Public Storage employees lied to her about security.

“We had a fair expectation, why wouldn’t it be protected when we were told it was 24/7 security?” she said. “I don’t feel like I made the wrong decision here. I was trusting a company that told me I could trust them and that I would be secure.”

The Star-Telegram’s repeated attempts to speak with someone at Public Storage were unsuccessful this week. Employees at the Stella Street location said they could not comment and referred a reporter to a company lawyer, who did not immediately respond to messages. A district manager also did not respond to a request for comment.

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While Kirkwood was at the facility with police, she said she overheard a potential customer tell an employee they weren’t sure if they wanted to go through with renting a unit. Kirkwood said the employee told them, “This would happen anywhere. If people want to get in, they’ll get in.”

“That was very upsetting to hear him like trying to get this person to sign up with them anyway, as I was, you know, losing all of my stuff,” Kirkwood said.

Kirkwood also questions why she wasn’t told about the break-ins sooner. She learned from Fort Worth police that the first break-in happened around 4:30 a.m. Monday. The facility opens at 6 a.m., and the property manager arrives at 9 a.m., but Kirkwood said no one called her until 2 p.m.

“Why would they be sitting in their office for five hours before checking the property, you know?” Kirkwood said. “Like I feel like if I was in that position, that would be the first thing I do is go walk around, make sure everything’s OK.”

Police determined from security camera footage that the second burglary took place around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the police report. Kirkwood said she wonders why she wasn’t notified until Wednesday afternoon. In both cases, Kirkwood said, she had to call the police herself to report the robberies.

Kirkwood said they are still waiting to hear back from Orange Door about their insurance claim.

Snyder said he spoke with a district manager who wasn’t able to give him answers on how two break-ins could happen less than 48 hours apart.

“He was just rambling to me about how he is at as much of a loss as we are, and went on about how they’d need to pay for damages done to their doors,” Snyder said. “He had zero concern for how much we had lost due to this, only wanting to continuously repeat that we signed the rental agreement — an agreement that we signed only after being told the facility was safe and under 24/7 security.”

Even if police find some of the stolen property, Kirkwood fears it will be damaged. They were all new when she put them in the storage unit, and many of them were rare items that can’t be replaced.

“It’s removed so much from us,” Kirkwood said. “You know, it’s material things, but it was things we were so passionate about. And they’re gone.”

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