The City of West Hollywood is telling residents their garage probably isn’t as locked down as they think it is.
The City’s Public Safety Division put out a warning Wednesday on Instagram, saying entry access codes have turned up written on walls and entry panels inside residential buildings and that the visible codes are a security risk even though no crimes have been reported yet. Residents and property managers need to remove the codes, update them, and stop putting them anywhere someone walking by could read them. Anything suspicious should go to the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, and questions can reach the Public Safety Division directly at safety@weho.org.
It’s a story WEHOonline’s broke last month. Neighborhood Watch Block Co-Captain Edd Holman, filmed an Athens Services driver allegedly using a garage gate code he’d read right off the outside of the building. Holman then walked his neighborhood and found more. A lot more. Gate frames, key boxes, utility pipes, welcome signs, handrails. Fifteen on a single street, scratched in pen and Sharpie, usable by anyone who got their hands on a standard dip switch clicker.
Holman called Public Works Director Helen Collins, reached out to the City’s public safety office, and contacted Athens directly before writing a Dear WeHo letter on WEHOonline to get the word out to residents. Athens’ initial response was that maybe a delivery service had written the codes. Holman didn’t buy it — delivery drivers come through the front door, not the garage.
Athens Operations Manager Ruben Valenzuela eventually met with Holman and Collins, and both agreed the codes were a real problem. Athens said they’d work on getting them removed and educating their crews.
Holman took it to City Council anyway because a promise to clean up the mess wasn’t the same as making sure it couldn’t happen again. The codes kept showing up in exactly the spots where Athens drivers need access, he told the council, and whether or not it violated company policy, that was the reality on the ground. He called it an open invitation for vehicle burglaries, package theft, and lie-in-wait violent crime, and asked for Council oversight. Athens has officially disputed their employees had anything to do with the compromised codes.
Wednesday’s City post is the loudest official acknowledgment the problem has gotten since Holman first raised it. For property managers, his advice hasn’t changed — get outside and look near the gate hardware for anything handwritten in pen or Sharpie. Finding one means the code’s already compromised. Painting over it won’t fix anything. The whole code needs to change.
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This city is concerned about this..but they weren’t concerned that our southern border was wide open to God knows who for 4 years?! WTF.
I know for a fact it is Athens doing this. They have done it at least twice to our building and I have them in video doing it.