Suspects wanted for stealing thousands of dollars worth of items from storage units

UPPER MERION TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Police in Montgomery County are asking for the public's help in identifying suspects they say have stolen thousands of dollars of items from storage units.

Upper Merion Township police say they believe the same suspect has targeted an Extra Space Storage facility in the township at least three different times, sometimes with help. Everything from guitars to dirt bikes and four-wheelers were stolen.

Investigators are hoping someone recognizes the suspect from surveillance photos.

"We believe one actor is all the same person in each of the three incidents," said Chief Thomas Nolan.

Police say the crimes were first reported in September when at least six different storage units were broken into the storage facility on the 500 block of Henderson Road.

"If we do get a burglary report, we do try to check around and see if there's any other units broken into, but not all the time you can see how they were accessed and see that someone was in there," said Nolan.

Police believe the same man broke into the same facility on January 8 and February 18 with help from a woman and another man.

In the most recent case, investigators believe the trio escaped in a stolen U-Haul truck.

They believe the same suspect may be responsible for a burglary at a different Extra Space Storage facility in January on Gulph Road.

"It's really whatever people keep in their storage units. It could be from baseball card collections to paintings, any types of things like that," said Nolan.

As police look for this suspect, they're warning people to keep an eye on their belongings.

"I would make it a point to check them more often," said Nolan.

Investigators say these crimes are harder to solve when they don't have a clear idea of when the burglary happened.

"That's probably the biggest difficulty that people don't always access their storage units so it could be a couple months before somebody comes in and realizes their storage unit was broken into," said Nolan.

Police also recommend anyone with a storage unit to keep an accurate log of what's in there, including price and pictures to identify items.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Upper Merion police at 610-265-3232.