Kansas City police recover $100,000 worth of items following storage unit crime spree
An estimated $100,000 worth of items have been recovered by Kansas City police following a string of thefts at storage units across the metro area.
Officers received a call over the weekend from a manager at a Kansas City storage facility who reported a man leaving storage units open and acting suspicious, according to Kansas City police detective Derek Galloway.
Management also said several people with storage units had their locks changed and weren’t able to access their items.
“When they opened the units they discovered that all their items had been stolen and began filing police reports,” Galloway said.
On Monday, police identified the suspect and found some of the stolen items in his unit, he said. The man had allegedly been cutting locks off of the storage units and replacing them with his own.
As additional victims of thefts at Lenexa, Olathe and Overland Park facilities filed police reports, officers began to match more of the missing items with those found in the man’s storage unit.
So far there have been 12 victims, Galloway said, but there could be many more people and a lot more missing items.
“We had one victim that had a lot of commemorative items missing and two or three that were in the process of moving so they put all their stuff into storage,” he said.
Joe Cook, another victim recovered five of his tools from the garage behind Kansas City Police Metro Patrol, where the property found in the suspect’s storage unit is being held.
The tools were stored in a unit belonging to his employer, Zahner, a manufacturing company. Cook said the recovered items would have cost between $500 and $600 to replace.
“It was an unexpected surprise and we were really glad that police told us to come down here and take a look,” he said.
Police believe they have the man who perpetrated the thefts in custody, according to Galloway.
Police are asking Kansas Citians to check on their storage units and file a report with the department for any property that may be missing.
