The 5 Craziest Stories of Real Things That Happened Inside Storage Units
You might not think too much about what’s in the storage unit next to yours. After all, it’s most likely the same innocuous stuff that you’re storing: The box of old clothes, the rusty bike, a spare piece of furniture.
While a storage facility might be the place that many people turn to when major life changes like divorce and death occur, the physical refuge of those tragedies (aka the stuff that ends up in a storage unit) is rarely as dramatic as the situation that created the need for extra space in the first place. So yes, you’re right in thinking that nothing too weird happens at your storage facility—that is unless you’re renting a unit at one of the facilities where the following five crazy stories took place.The Mango Picking Gun Thief
At a storage facility in Maui, a man named Sancho Agtaguem came up with a unique way to rob the storage unit next to his. From inside his own storage unit, he used a mango picker (which looks like a long pole with a basket attached) to steal six guns from the neighboring unit. This included two revolvers, two rifles and two pistols. Agtaguem allegedly traded one gun for drugs and another ended up in the possession of a convicted felon who was caught brandishing it around outside of a pharmacy. Amazingly enough, the original owners of the guns didn’t know about any of this until they were contacted by the police. While it’s unclear on how Agtaguem was able to maneuver the mango picker into the neighboring storage unit, how he knew about the guns, or whether the storage facility allowed tenants to store weapons in the first place, one thing is definitely clear: Hawaiian burglars sure know how to insert something tropical into their heists.The Frozen Murder Victim
Jeffery Korber’s family hadn’t heard from him in a while. They weren’t overly concerned about the whereabouts of the 60 year old Ventura, California man, however, until he missed his daughter’s graduation—something they knew he would never do on purpose.
They filed a missing person's report, and detectives immediately questioned his girlfriend, Mary Francesca Hannan, who he had been living with up until his disappearance. Hannan told police that she and Korber had had a disagreement and he had left for a job in Florida. Officers were suspicious after finding his car abandoned at the airport but couldn’t find evidence of foul play. The case went cold. 18 months later, things got ghastly. Police received a tip from a woman who claimed that Hannan’s son, Michael Bresnak, had called her sometime ago and asked to bury a body on her property. Like most people, she didn’t exactly jump at the offer. Later, she alleged that Bresnak showed her a freezer and claimed that Korber’s body was inside. This eventually led police to a storage facility in Ventura, where they found the freezer containing Korber’s body inside a storage unit. It was later revealed that Bresnak had killed Korber and his mother had helped hide the body. Because the freezer was plugged in, no one had detected any strange odors. According to the facility’s manager, the storage unit was in Bresnak’s name and he was a loyal tenant who visited the facility every single day.A K-9 Coincidence
Just after midnight at a storage facility in Lake Mary, Florida, two men hopped the fence with plans to break into storage units. They were feeling confident—so confident in fact, that they took their sweet time and only one of the men bothered to wear a mask to hide his identity. Just as they began to open up storage units with bolt cutters, they realized that they were not alone. Little did they know, the owners of that storage facility just so happened to allow local police officers to conduct K9 training on the property, half a dozen of whom showed up just as the burglars were getting started. The cops spotted the men right away and arrested them both. The two burglars never stood a chance. “They can be here every night and do this,” Brenda Young, the co-owner of the facility said of the K9 units, “They can train their dogs and I’ll even buy them dog treats.”The Mortician’s Storage Unit
Joseph V. O’Donnell was a funeral home director who ran a business he’d inherited from his grandfather. When his license lapsed in 2008 and his funeral home closed, he was left with a strange predicament. He’d already accepted and spent deposits from families but no longer had a place to conduct his business. Out of desperation, he concocted a plan. He rented a storage unit at a facility in Weymouth, Massachusetts where he stashed bodies after giving ashes from an unknown source to his grieving clients. Eventually, investigators caught on to his scheme and the police opened up the storage unit in Weymouth. The gruesome contents shocked them. It took them months to identify the bodies inside.O’Donnell was indicted on criminal charges including improper disposal of human remains. He eventually pled guilty and was sentenced to three to five years in prison.
For the affected families, O’Donnell’s apology in court was met with mixed reactions. Some were angry and others were looking to move on with their lives, but they could all agree on one thing: they would never forget the grisly story that had unfolded in that storage unit.
