What made it worse, is that the company that owns the storage shed saw this mess, assumed that we had “secretly moved out” (although we were still paying them monthly) when it was clearly ransacked with proof of forced entry and tried to fine us a $200 cleaning fee.

They didn’t let us know until close to closing at the end of the month, so my husband went straight there and they didn’t want to let him in because “entry was only for paying customers”. My husband pointed out that he had paid for that month already and they STILL didn’t want to let him in. He had to call the police and at least they are taking it seriously.

I’m grateful that they still have some of what is pictured above in the dumpster that we are about to go retrieve, however I’m gutted that at least $1000 worth of books and way more importantly, the spice jars my dad made for me (he died this June). I’m beyond gutted and frustrated that the company didn’t even contact us to say “hey you have x amount of time to get your stuff before we get a cleaning crew to do it for you” or even used the common sense needed to say hey, this doesn’t look right. It was just handled so poorly and I really hope I at least get the jars back some way somehow.

I'm watching backrooms right now and then I see this photo

I'm pretty sure their actions and failure to secure the property are grounds for a lawsuit.

We are highly considering it. The deputy on the case said give it some time for investigation first for security footage.

If you haven't already, catalog everything you have/had in the unit with valuations. Make sure you have a list of the belongings they threw in the trash and for shits and giggles, get pricing for having it all professionally cleaned. You will need all this moving forward.

Sounds like a real headache. Hopefully, the storage company steps up and helps sort this out.

Lol, you've never dealt with a storage company, have you. They are just as awful as tow companies.

I didn’t think about recording the price of getting it professionally cleaned, that’s really good advice, thank you!

The way they handled the situation gave us reason to believe they were in on it. Guilty dogs bark.

My husband was pissed at the whole situation and he can get pretty sassy. When he told them they will need to waive the $200 charge, they said “we won’t even consider that until we have a police report” and he said “I’m not going to pay it either way” and they started cussing him out.

I’ve never dealt with a tow company but I absolutely believe what the other reply says 😂

I’m sure the fine print in the lease absolves them of any responsibility. That’s why they always shove their insurance down your throat (which is usually a subsidy of said storage company = more profit for the bottom line). If, very big if, you can prove the employees are involved you may have a case. Most likely the company will just say we terminated Sid employee and problem solved. Yes, i worked for one of the nicer nationwide companies and this is how it went. And it always took forever to make an insurance claim

I wonder if one of the employees has the spice jars or possibly even the books...
They don't seem like the kind of things you'd grab in a quick in-and-out ransacking robbery.
They do however sound like the kind of thing an employee would grab if they're tasked to chuck everything in the bin.

If I were you I'd try and get access to all the security footage of anyone handling your stuff. Maybe even stick your head in and see where they keep that bin and if it's covered by a security camera.
I wouldn't go accusing anyone of course, but if they do have cameras in that location I'd ask and give the reason that I wanted to check which items had definitely been disposed of and which might be recovered with the rest of the stolen goods.

Sounds like they went beyond just that with failing to notify, failing to allow entry by current customer, and disposing of articles without said notification. While they are not financially responsible for uninsured content due to "theft", their conduct is going to look very bad. And as you said, if an employee possesses any of the items, then you could argue the facility is culpable.

I'm pretty sure their actions indicate some level of culpability, if not outright collusion with the offenders.