The Martin County Sheriff’s Office in southeastern Florida recently issued a “Traveling Criminal Alert” in warning of a rash of storage facility burglaries that have occurred in neighboring counties.
Historically when crimes like this occur in surrounding counties, it’s only a matter of time before Martin County becomes a target, states the release from the Sheriff’s office.
These crimes begin with storage facilities, then progress to marinas, boat and auto storage facilities.
The Sheriff advises the community to be aware of this crime trend and take preventive measures where possible to protect your property. That could include setting alarms, utilizing security cameras with a record mode, securing locks, alerting neighboring businesses to this activity, and calling 911 to report any suspicious activity, including suspicious vehicles or suspicious persons.
The Sheriff’s Office has already launched a reverse alert phone call to all facilities registered on the AlertMartin system.
“Our goal is to make Martin County the least appealing place to commit these crimes. If we work together and share this information, we might be able to avoid being victimized by these traveling criminals,” states the release.
The robbery is a reminder to all storage property owners to make sure they have updated all insurance policies. “Every RV & boat storage facility must develop a Risk Management Assessment and Plan. If not, this high-income asset is at the whelm of every weather-related event and incidences of theft,” explains Terry Anderson, President and CEO of Tenant Property Protection, providers of insurance products and services specific to self-storage, RV and boat storage.
“Owner/operator negligence in preparing for the risk of winds, fires and burglary has led to the rising cost of Property & Casualty insurance rates,” Anderson continues. “A Risk Management Assessment and Plan is a way to save profits and costs when faced with potential losses. Every good general business property and casualty agency in the storage industry should have a resource available to meet this need.”
