| Photo: Living Stingy |
A bizarre break-in to a California storage unit containing $35,000 worth of marijuana plants has the self-storage community puzzled, and engaging in what Inside Self Storage is calling a “spirited discussion” — well, that and a lawsuit.
Gary Hite, a tenant who grows medical marijuana, reported the theft of 35 cannabis plants, valued at $1,000 apiece, from his storage unit, reports Self Storage Investing.
Hite said the Hunco Way self-storage facility operator neglected to repair a broken door on an adjacent unit, from which determined, pot-hungry thieves tunneled through two layers of drywall to steal the plants.
Hite, who said the property manager knew about the broken door on the neighboring unit, has filed a lawsuit against the self-storage facility in Riverside County Superior Court. The facility has not provided its insurance information, according to the complaint.
On the Self-Storage Talk online community, thread participants said they are glad they aren’t in this facility operator’s shoes.
One suggests that the “limit of liability” clause of the rental agreement will be important in this instance. Another goes so far as to claim the tenant set up the break-in, and that the plants weren’t stolen at all, pointing out that the plaintiff’s unit was the only one broken into. (Of course, it may also have been the only one where cannabis was fragrantly growing, too.)
Even though marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes in California, another thread commenter called into question the “integrity” of a storage facility “that allows marijuana of any kind in a unit.”
The marijuana-growing tenant was somehow drawing electricity to the unit to power his grow lights, but it’s not clear yet whether he had permission from the facility operator to do that.