Storage Container Lock Box in Philadelphia

A lock box is built for a specific kind of padlock, and the cheap long-shackle locks from the hardware store checkout line aren't it. Use a short-shackle or shrouded-shackle padlock, sometimes sold as a puck or disk lock, that fits up inside the box with very little shackle showing. A hardened steel lock rated for outdoor use stands up to weather as well as to tools. Bring the lock on delivery day or have it ready at the site, and keep the keys with the people who need them.

Any container that holds something worth stealing does, but some sites need it more than others:

A lock box is the most important piece of container security, but it works best with the rest of the site helping. Face the doors toward a wall, the house or the inside of the fence, so anybody working on them has to do it in view and in a tight space. A container with its doors a few feet from a building wall is very hard to work on with a long tool. Keep the area lit if there's a light to use, and don't leave the key on site, under a block or in the porta potty.

Keep the valuable things away from the doors and out of sight when they're open, so passersby don't see a stack of new tools every morning. And keep the inventory: a list and a photo of what's inside makes an insurance claim or a police report possible if the worst happens.

A double-door container has two sets of doors and two places to lock, and each end can have its own lock box. If one end won't be opened often, put the stronger lock and the lock box on the end that faces the street or the alley, which is the one a thief will try first.

No lock stops someone with enough time and power tools. The point of a lock box is to make your container slower and harder than the next one, which is what keeps most of them safe. It doesn't replace insurance on expensive equipment, it doesn't help if the key is left on site, and it doesn't stop someone who has the key. Treat it as the most cost-effective layer, not the only one.

A lock box goes on the quote as its own line and works with any container size: the 10 foot, the 20 foot or the 40 foot. Ask for it when you request the quote, so the container arrives ready to lock up the first night. Add shelving and lighting on the same quote if the container will be in daily use.

Construction sites lose tools and materials everywhere, and a city with as many active permits as Philadelphia gives thieves plenty of sites to choose from. Rowhome rehabs are easy targets: the block empties out after the crew leaves, there's no fence, and the container often sits on a parking pad off an alley where nobody is watching at 2 a.m. Copper, wire, appliances and power tools are what get taken, because they sell fast.

The thief walking an alley at night is looking for the easy one: an open padlock, a cheap lock, a container with its doors facing the alley. A lock box, a decent padlock and a container with its doors facing the house turn yours into the hard one, and most of the time that's enough to make them keep walking.

A lock box only works if the key stays where it belongs. A few habits keep it that way:

On a big site with two or three containers, keep the security consistent. Every container gets a lock box, every padlock is keyed alike so one key opens them all, and the containers are placed so their doors face each other or face the building, which makes it hard to work on any of them without being seen. A site with one locked-down container and one with an exposed padlock just tells a thief which one to try.