SInce 2016 I have been investing in Lego and have built up quite an inventory. Due to many sets becoming really valuable right now, I started selling off about half of my inventory. Most of my Lego is stored in a large storage company with a fence that has a code, a door that has a code and my boxes have good locks. This local storage company has a good reputation, so I expected my stuff to be safe. I'm pretty cautious, so I had my Lego in several units far apart in the building, so thiefs would not accidentally stumble upon my whole collection.
They did however find one box...
This Wednesday, I went to the company and took some boxes on a cart to the elevator to store them in one of my spaces. Two dodgy looking guys took also put an empty cart in the elevator (non-person elevator). When I was upstairs to take my cart out, the guys where not there to get their cart. A minute later I found out why. They saw the boxes on my cart and realised they looked very similar to the ones in the one they were stealing from.
When I went to my unit, I found out there was a hole in the side of it. They used an empty unit next to it that was left open to break through the metal walls between the units. They put a lot of my Lego in that unit and had a cart ready to take it out.
It just happened to be my luck, that at exactly that time, I came to my unit. Ten minutes earlier or later, I would have actually caught them in my unit, so that feels pretty scary as I can imagine many scenarios of how that could play out. Honestly, I'm in a pretty good shape, but my last fight was when I was 15 or so. And it was not really a fight, anyway
LONG STORY SHORT: The police came and the owner of the building has them on camera. Even dumber, one of the thiefs used the code to enter the building of his stepfather. They were walking through the building the day before to check out all the units and looking over narrow slits at the top to see what's inside. This fstepather was called by police and could immediately ID his stepson. Apparently, he immediately knew it had probably got something to do with him. They have caught the guys. This was a really dumb "heist".
For me it was pretty lucky and scary at the same time. I'm arranging to get private strorage at an inconspicuous place, where I can get better security and insurance.
I will update when I know more. The police has to go through all the motions.
PS: I know you might feel the urge to be like hindsight man and point me on the risks of this kind of storage etc, but please refrain from it. I took a risk by doing it this way, but I did a cost- benefit analysis and this was a midprice place with good security and a lot of cameras. These guys were caught, because you have to be pretty dumb to do this.
The guys will likely be charged with attempt of breaking and entering, so the punishment will be lower. They were lucky I was there to prevent them, because they would have been caught anyway.
I will attach some pics so you get a better idea of it.
And, I immediatly rented a truck and moved the stuff, of course
This whole event did lower my enthousiasm for lego investing for a couple of days, but I'm selling a lot of sets now and the happiness of the people that buy it is very rewarding, so I'll just keep going
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SInce 2016 I have been investing in Lego and have built up quite an inventory. Due to many sets becoming really valuable right now, I started selling off about half of my inventory. Most of my Lego is stored in a large storage company with a fence that has a code, a door that has a code and my boxes have good locks. This local storage company has a good reputation, so I expected my stuff to be safe. I'm pretty cautious, so I had my Lego in several units far apart in the building, so thiefs would not accidentally stumble upon my whole collection.
They did however find one box...
This Wednesday, I went to the company and took some boxes on a cart to the elevator to store them in one of my spaces. Two dodgy looking guys took also put an empty cart in the elevator (non-person elevator). When I was upstairs to take my cart out, the guys where not there to get their cart. A minute later I found out why. They saw the boxes on my cart and realised they looked very similar to the ones in the one they were stealing from.
When I went to my unit, I found out there was a hole in the side of it. They used an empty unit next to it that was left open to break through the metal walls between the units. They put a lot of my Lego in that unit and had a cart ready to take it out.
It just happened to be my luck, that at exactly that time, I came to my unit. Ten minutes earlier or later, I would have actually caught them in my unit, so that feels pretty scary as I can imagine many scenarios of how that could play out. Honestly, I'm in a pretty good shape, but my last fight was when I was 15 or so. And it was not really a fight, anyway
LONG STORY SHORT: The police came and the owner of the building has them on camera. Even dumber, one of the thiefs used the code to enter the building of his stepfather. They were walking through the building the day before to check out all the units and looking over narrow slits at the top to see what's inside. This fstepather was called by police and could immediately ID his stepson. Apparently, he immediately knew it had probably got something to do with him. They have caught the guys. This was a really dumb "heist".
For me it was pretty lucky and scary at the same time. I'm arranging to get private strorage at an inconspicuous place, where I can get better security and insurance.
I will update when I know more. The police has to go through all the motions.
PS: I know you might feel the urge to be like hindsight man and point me on the risks of this kind of storage etc, but please refrain from it. I took a risk by doing it this way, but I did a cost- benefit analysis and this was a midprice place with good security and a lot of cameras. These guys were caught, because you have to be pretty dumb to do this.
The guys will likely be charged with attempt of breaking and entering, so the punishment will be lower. They were lucky I was there to prevent them, because they would have been caught anyway.
I will attach some pics so you get a better idea of it.
And, I immediatly rented a truck and moved the stuff, of course
This whole event did lower my enthousiasm for lego investing for a couple of days, but I'm selling a lot of sets now and the happiness of the people that buy it is very rewarding, so I'll just keep going