Thieves Target Storage Units in Three Counties – Is Yours OK?

Michigan State Police Troopers and area law enforcement departments are looking for a third suspect, but they’ve grabbed the two primary figures in a burglary ring that hit locations in Calhoun, Barry, and Allegan counties. And those are just the ones they’ve been able to identify so far. 38-year-old James Morgan and 36-year-old Terri Vantuinen are being held at the Barry County Jail this morning on a list of charges stemming from burglaries at storage businesses throughout the area. Police had their original contact with two of the three who they caught in the act of a storage unit burglary in mid-April. They were not detained due to the virus restrictions on holding certain criminal suspects.  But then Morgan and Vantuinen were caught over the weekend breaking into a storage unit near Hastings. Detectives got a search warrant and pulled a pile of presumably stolen goods from their residence on Baseline Road.

Detectives say one of the problems they’re facing in the case, is the thieves were good at hiding their tracks and replacing broken storage unit locks with their own. So storage unit managers won’t know something is wrong on sight. And unit renters won’t know anything is wrong until they return to their rented unit. So far, 11 commercial storage sites in the three counties are verified as being hit by the trio. There could be others that investigators have not yet pinpointed. If you have a storage unit in the area, might be a good idea to do a quick check. Potential tampering or missing property should be reported to the Michigan State Police Post in Wayland, and the local law enforcement department.