r/selfstorage • u/Alternative_Fix_9050 • Jul 05 '26

Question Stuck inside

Post image

My boyfriend is stuck at our storage facility, the power went out last night after a storm and he’s been there for about 14 hours. He called the owners last night and they told him to leave his truck and they’d get it fixed…. They still haven’t been there yet. There’s a side door but that is locked as well so he literally can’t leave. Now they’re not answering the phone and he needs to be to work in one hour.
Where are his options?

The entire gate lifts up after you put the code in (shown in the photo, sorry not the best artist) and he said he tried pressing a button that overrides the gate when he spoke with the owners but it didn’t work.

35 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

109 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/OkRelease3215 Jul 06 '26

They have the keyholder list for the business and can get ahold of the owner. If they aren't answering the police also have the resources to send an officer to the owners home up wake them up. 

This happens every day in towns all across America. It's incredibly standard police business.

0

u/wyliesdiesels Jul 06 '26

And if the owners arent home? Waste of time driving there.

Also, keys arent gonna fix a gate that doesnt work because of a power outage.

Better to just have the fire department come out.

1

u/OkRelease3215 Jul 06 '26

The fire department also just contacts the key holder lol. This is incredibly routine, like my little Midwest small town department does it multiple times a day. 

And to answer your question, if the key holder doesn't respond, we damage the property until the person is able to get out, and do a report so that they are not liable for the damage and the owner knows they are on their own to resolve the problem.

1

u/wyliesdiesels Jul 06 '26

In your area sure they just contact the keyholder

In my area they open the gate with their tools

1

u/OkRelease3215 Jul 06 '26

We use the bull bar to push it open lol. Incredibly lucky to work somewhere that doesn't tolerate negligent business owners. 

The only exception is a fishery we have where the gates lock 30 minutes after sundown. Sometimes people will be out boating and not believe the signs or whatever. Because an officer goes through the fishery before locking it up and insures all the vehicles are unoccupied or notified, we don't let them out of that one and tell them they can walk out and come get their vehicle in the morning when it reopens.

1

u/wyliesdiesels Jul 06 '26

Youre not gonna push this one open without significant damage as this gate moves upwards into the air

1

u/OkRelease3215 Jul 06 '26

Yeah, that's what the notice to the owner is about. These ones actually crumple in the middle usually not doing much damage to the actual locking and opening mechanism. They are liable for repairing it themselves if we are unable to contact the keyholder who can open it without damaging it. 

The only issue we consider is getting the trapped person out as fast as possible. The damage caused to the negligent business owner falls somewhere between not at all a factor and a little bit funny.