Luggage Cart Disappeared

A year-end puzzler. Hardly a serious issue and it doesn't seem that many visit this site who are in high rise HOAs. Still, there are many smart folks who reply, so I'll give this a try.

Our community comprises 2 high rise towers of 25 floors each plus 3 levels of underground parking. There are residents' storage areas with sizable individual lockers in them on each garage level. There are 200+ condo units in the towers.

Each tower has a luggage cart--the type that's used in hotels-- for residents to schlepp large quantities of packages, groceries, clothing, etc. to and from their units. Each cart is kept in a room off of a 1st-floor lobby. Residents all have keys to these 2 rooms.

We have cameras that monitor the lobbies and the 2 elevators in each tower.

About 2 weeks ago, one luggage cart disappeared and a notice was posted in each elevator seeking its return or info about it. Security staff has reviewed most, but not all, of the film footage with no success. Our mgt. & security staff believe that someone inadvertently left it in their unit after use, and then took off for vacation or to visit their 2nd or primary residence.

Whether or not the cart is found, the board on which I'm a member is quite an emotional one. I imagine this topic will be on our January meeting agenda. I suspect that their solution to this "problem" (first time this has happened in the 10 years since the building opened) will be overkill, e.g., have every resident sign out/in when using a cart, which would have to be supervised by a security officer. The locks to the current rooms would be changed so that residents don't have access without security staff. This would be really inconvenient for all involved.

So far, I can only come up with 2 possible solutions. 1. Add a tracking device to each cart that could be activated by security. it would make a loud beeping sound. No, I haven't looked into this.

2. Change the key locks on the cart-storage room doors to fob-activated ones--we have many fob readers on our premises, e.g., in the elevators. If another cart disappears, security would be able to electronically check to see the last resident who used a fob to determine who might have the cart. The rooms where the carts are stored are mainly used by custodians and residents have no reason to go into them except for the carts.

Thanks for any ideas or advice you might have!

Thank you, Melissa. Many residents have collapsable shopping carts, but these hotel-type luggage carts (AKA bellman's carts) are far too big to store in our condo units--most are 1000-1500sq. ft, tho' there are some fancy large penthouses on the upper floors.

If this happened for the first time in 10 years I would definitely say it's not a problem that needs to be discussed for more than 30 seconds. The decision should be around "do we buy another cart or not". If this one is found at some point later - great you'll have a 3rd one.

I think your ideas of installing fob reader is a great one. I personally like those on all publicly accessible doors for reasons of accountability.

Sad to say, Tim and Jeff, the majority of directors on our 7-person board do tend to make mountains out of molehills. They do tend to generalize from one or rare incidents to create them as "problems." If the majority had its way, for example, we'd have signs plastered everywhere stating certain rules that are rarely broken. I've usually been able to move them towards rational, analytical approaches. That's why I'm trying to come up with ideas about the missing cart in advance of the next meeting.

The missing cart will eventually be replaced if not found. They cost about $500.