A self-storage tenant and his wife have been charged with multiple break-ins that occurred last summer at Bally Storage in Bally, Pa., where they rented a unit. Though the couple has yet to be arrested, they became the focus of the investigation after some of the items that were reported stolen turned up for sale on Facebook, according to the source.
Police were contacted on Aug. 31 after a renter discovered his unit had been breached. While investigating, they discovered five other spaces on which the padlock had been removed, including one rented by the male suspect, Jeffery A. Stump, 34. Another customer, a home-healthcare agency, reported more than $4,000 in missing items including wheelchairs, hospital beds, a nebulizer and oxygen concentrators, some of which were labeled with the agency’s name. A staff member saw them for sale on Facebook by Stump and reported it to authorities.
When police reviewed the self-storage facility’s security footage, they saw a red pickup entering the site in the very early hours of the morning on Aug. 26 and Sept. 2. During the first visit, a man identified as Stump entered his own unit, then removed items from adjacent units and put them onto his truck. On the second visit, he was accompanied by a woman, later identified as Tamara L. Stump, 32, who helped him load goods into the truck, which is registered in her name. The video shows Jeffery cutting locks off of units.
On the morning of Sept. 2, the Stumps were stopped by police while driving to the storage business, though the source didn’t explain why. Police found the truck empty and were told of the couple’s true destination. The exchange is what allowed officers to identify the pair once the thefts were discovered.
The Stumps were charged on Jan. 11 with three counts each of burglary, criminal trespass and criminal mischief.
Bally Storage is in the Bally Business Corporate Center. It offers climate-controlled and non-climate-controlled shipping containers.
Source:
Reading Eagle, Berks County Couple Charged in Break-Ins at Bally Self-Storage Facility
