April 22, 2014

Your Storage Container Only Does Part of the Job, Finish the Job With the Enforcer

In my (many) years in this business I can say I’ve seen a lot when it comes to people trying to break into our customers containers and I’m happy to say, when the customer had a good lock that properly secured the doors of their container, the strength of the container usually won.   Several years ago we had rented one of our best customers some containers and some storage trailers for a large renovation project they were doing. I forget the reason they wanted both types of storage equipment, but suffice it to say they had a reason for it, or so they thought.  Just as storage containers are retired shipping containers, storage trailers are retired over the road semitrailers.  One day we got a frantic call from the customer looking for help, it seems some thieves had made their way onto the construction site to break into the storage units and make off with the stored inventory. The enterprising thieves had actually taken a cordless sawzsall, cut an access hole in the wood floor of the semi and made off with much of the contents. On the other hand, while some of the storage containers sustained some damage from attempted break-ins, mostly to the doors the containers remained fortified and the thieves gave up.   On both the storage trailers and the storage containers the doors were properly secured making them impossible for the thieves to break into so they had to find another weakness. The exposed wood underbelly of the semi proved to be the weakness they needed, but storage containers don’t have this weakness. While container floors are fabricated from wood they are on the ground and totally un accessible.  
destr_torsion_padlock1

A simple bolt cutter is all it takes to get past most locks.

  To secure the doors and the valuable contents of both your containers and semi-trailers you need more than a shackle lock that can be cut with a simple bolt cutter, all those locks will do is slow the intruder down for about 15 seconds. The locks you use for your storage equipment needs to be manufactured from hardened steel and designed so that bolt cutters, saws, chains and types of tools do not allow then to fail yet easy to install and remove so that people don’t become complacent about using it and leaving the contents once again vulnerable. Look for a lock that secures both doors instead of just locking a single door handle like a shackle lock would, this prevents attempts at prying the doors open. There are lots of strong, innovative locks on the market today; the one we recommend is the “Enforcer.” bar. Made from 10 gauge chrome plated spring steel this unit completely conceals the shackle of the ABLOY® High Security Padlock, providing maximum security from physical attack. This lock can be keyed alike, different or to a master system and combined with any of our other ENFORCER® High Security Locks. It’s portable, requiring no permanent installation, and includes the ABLOY® padlock.  This is the lock that we originally placed on the storage unit doors that forced the thieves to cut through the semi-trailer wood floors.