The Urbana Police Division is investigating multiple breaking and enterings to storage units from earlier this week.
Urbana Police Chief Matt Lingrell said police investigated multiple break-ins to storage units at the Urbana Self Storage, 1336 E. U.S. Route 36, Monday. The crimes were discovered by a person leaving the Champaign Family YMCA around 6:56 a.m. and spotting several open doors within the facility. The person notified the owner, who then notified police.
Police found that 58 units had been broken into and some had items stolen. Lingrell said on Thursday that police were awaiting information from the many victims before finalizing a list of the stolen property. The doors to the storage units sustained severe damage by the burglars as they forced the doors open.
Through video surveillance, police learned that two burglars arrived in the area in a vehicle around 10:52 p.m. on Sunday and left around 12:52 a.m. on Monday. Once at the location, the suspects cut open the chain link fence surrounding the facility and began breaking into the units.
During the daytime on Monday, various stolen items were found in a nearby field and Lingrell said it appeared the burglars might have planned to return to collect the items at a later time.
Police collected evidence they hope will assist in identifying the perpetrators.
Anyone with potential information about the break-in is asked to contact the Urbana Police Division at 937-652-4350.
Lingrell said through the end of August, Urbana police responded to 41 burglary/breaking and entering cases this year. Over the same period of time in 2014, police handled 55 such cases.
