He's counting on Insomniac to keep lockers safe

Bruce Manring checks out his Insomniac Kiosk. "The unit does about everything but move you in," he said. Tribune Photo/IDA CHIPMAN

LAPAZ -- Bruce Manring knows how things can go wrong at his Discount Storage facility.

There was a police drug raid, for example.

That happened about 2 1/2 years ago when officers from the Multi-County Drug Task Force raided a methamphetamine lab that had been set up less than three hours earlier inside one of Manring's 168 rental storage lockers.

Bruce's wife, Sherry, had noticed an electrical extension cord running out from under the closed door of storage unit number 69 while making her usual morning rounds.

The cord was attached to a nearby generator.

"She went to get a closer look and got a whiff of anhydrous ammonia so strong that it made her heart flutter," Bruce said.

Sherry had noticed two men earlier through one of the 16 surveillance cameras.

She asked them through the door of their unit what they were doing.

They said they'd been cleaning and packing all night.

"They were so whacked out," Bruce said, "they thought they were invisible."

Sherry phoned authorities, who made the bust.

That sort of problem isn't likely to happen again, thanks in part to advances in technology.

Bruce has installed an Insomniac Self-Storage Kiosk at 13005 3rd Road, just south of LaPaz.

The Insomniac rents units, takes payments and sells locks to customers.

It is the first one in Marshall County and one of over a dozen in Indiana.

It has a built-in fingerprint scanner, a signature pad, driver's license scanner, digital camera, and a check and credit card scanner.

All of those things would be anathema to someone bent on doing something against the law.

The only time Bruce, a 1976 LaVille High School graduate, has to show up is to collect cash from the machine, put new locks in its dispenser or sweep empty units.

"It's the best employee I've ever had," he said.

"Before we got the Insomniac Kiosk, I would get calls at night, in the middle of dinner, mowing the yard, whatever," he said.

And the Insomniac now does something most employees can't do.

It speaks Spanish.

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(574) 936-1124, or e-mail: ichipman@thenetanywhere.com