James Colozzo was a video system designer and operated a mail order video supply and repair business. In the late 1980’s he made the decision to take care of his dad and mom when they got ill.
James spent twenty-two years of his life caring for his father and mother and almost fourteen of those years were 24 hours a day.
In 2016 Mr. Colozzo wrote a book about his caregiving experience, “You Got To Do What You Got To Do.” It is an international seller and is a collection of situations, procedures and techniques from his caregiving years. Being a caregiver was a life changing experience that affected him forever. The book also tells the story of how much James’ life was changed after he made the decision to take care of his parents.
James Colozzo was in his late-fifties and was still trying to put his life back together. Unable to find a job due to the lack of a recent job history, James sold items online and did handyman work.
One day when he was making a payment for one of the mini storage units he was renting, the manager asked if he could repair a door that had a missing rope bracket. For years he had mentioned to her that he did handyman work, James told her “No problem” and reattached the door rope bracket. A few days later he received a phone call from the storage facility owners. He was asked if he could help them at the facility temporarily while the staff handyman was out on sick leave. He said, “sure” and started working 3 days a week keeping the facility clean, working and safe. That temporary job lasted a lot longer due to the unfortunate situation that the staff handyman passed away.
During his time at the mini storage facility Mr. Colozzo learned a great deal about the operation of the facility and the industry itself. About two months after he started, the facility had a break-in during the night. It was a quick break-in where they cut the wrought iron gate, cut the padlock on a few doors with a bolt cutter and left because they found nothing of value in the units they opened. James repaired the damage and the facility notified the tenants affected and the police.
A few weeks later the same vandals broke in again, this time cutting a different fence and once again targeted units with a padlock. The tenants and police were notified and James repaired the damaged fence and door hasps.
The next month they struck again. As usual they targeted units with padlocks and used a small bolt cutter they carried in a back pack. Since this break-in was during the day the video system was able to capture their faces. Since James Colozzo had years of experience in the video industry and was familiar with numerous video security systems the owners asked if he could look at the video and make some still images for the police. It was a simple task and he was able to supply very good images of both vandals to the police. Both were arrested and went through the legal system.
A mini storage facility nearby also had break-ins during the same time period and they only allowed disc locks on their units. After hearing this James Colozzo used his troubleshooting and problem solving skills. Looking at the hasp Mr. Colozzo immediately knew what was the problem. His suspicion was confirmed when the facility sent a photograph with the compromised hasp and disc lock. That’s when James Colozzo thought of the basic design of the StorageJimmy Theft Deterrent Over Lock.
Going through a storage industry parts catalogs he found that devices were already being sold to correct this problem. That confirmed to James that the door hasp was a problem for the storage industry.
An idea and device was born because the StorageJimmy Theft Deterrent Over Lock can not be easily cut or drilled.