[SEL] O.T. Key Security

[Paul Maples]

Ok gang I need your help again. As most of you know I have a part time job where I help manage a 60 unit apartment complex and do all of the maintenance. The office is about 10' X 10' in size, we have a steel entry door with a dead bolt lock, the office has one outside window and we have bars over it so we felt pretty protected. The tenants spare apartment keys are locked in a key cabinet that is mounted on the wall inside of the office.

Last week we had an intruder gain access to our attic, walk over to the top of the office and just bust through the ceiling into the office. He gained access to the key cabinet once in the office and got some of the tenants keys as well as obtained the keys to the Laundromat which he used to gain access to the coin boxes and emptied all of them out. We are now in the process of re-keying the whole complex at a cost of about $3000.00.

The owners have asked me to come up with a more secure way of keeping the tenants keys in the office. Every key cabinet that I find on the Internet that is capable of holding about 180 keys is made only of light gauge metal, 10 gauge, etc. I was trying to find a heavy duty key safe like the old floor model safes you use to see in some of the offices but have been unable to find one made for keys.

I am looking for suggestions on how to obtain maximum security for storing the apartment keys in the office. Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul