Victoria Fire inspectors have discovered that fewer multi-unit buildings were compromised than originally thought after only six access keys were determined to be missing from the buildings’ lock boxes.
The fire department and City of Victoria had said on Friday that 35 keys were missing from the boxes on the outside of commercial or residential buildings.
But after checking with property managers, fire inspectors determined some of the lock vaults were empty because no keys had been stored in them, said deputy fire chief Chris Royle.
After checking lock boxes for about 500 multi-unit building, the fire department determined that six keys are still missing, Royle said.
All of Victoria Fire’s master keys are accounted for, he said, leaving the fire department and police unsure how someone could have breached the lock boxes.
“We have only 10 keys and they’ve all been accounted for,” Royle said. “We chose them due to high security levels, so we’re unaware of how [someone] could access the key vault.”
Keys in the lock boxes are used to access the buildings’ common areas, such as hallways, stairwells and parking garages.
No thefts have been reported related to the missing keys, said Victoria police spokesman Const. Mike Russell.
Police were contacted on Thursday by a property manager of a building on View Street who had security video of someone accessing its lock box.
Victoria police contacted the fire department, which began inspecting all multi-unit properties and contacting property-management firms.
Police are examining the video surveillance to try to identify the person.
There was no obvious damage to any of the lock boxes with missing keys, Royle said.
B.C. Hydro and Telus also have master keys to buildings, but those provide access to a different lock box than the fire department’s.
“The keys that we have are solely for our use — no one has access to those key vaults except the fire department,” Royle said.
In April 2012, a burglar used a fire department master key to steal computers with patient information, $10,000 worth of expensive medical equipment and cash from several medical offices at 1990 Fort St.
Victoria police also believe the master key was used in several other commercial break-ins in early 2012.
A 40-year-old Victoria man with a history of property crime was arrested in that case, but there was not enough evidence to lay a charge, police said.
The incident prompted the fire department to reduce the number of active master keys to 10 from 25.
All the buildings in the city had their lock boxes re-keyed.
