Thanks Edgar and all- to address your comments/ questions:

- The staffer who permitted a stranger to close my account was never disclosed and "no longer works there."

- No effort was ever made to investigate or pursue the stranger who signed the account closure. No effort was made to check security cameras, which monitored the service counter at the storage facility.

- I never had changed address nor phone number. Storage Deluxe had my correct contact information on file as evidenced by a promotional mailing I received around the same time.

- The "added value insurance" that the facility advertises has a cap on it of -- you guessed it-- $5,000. So had I ever bought it, I would have wasted money because the facility's contract entitled me to the same recovery by default. The only thing their "insurance plan" would have saved me is going to court for the money.

- This has become akin to the "perfect crime:" Storage Deluxe has been put, by the court, in a "teflon" position. The DA's office won't touch the case from a forgery standpoint because they can't pin the crime to one person. No Consumer Protection agency can do anything. The Police Dept. turned me to civil court from Day One. My homeowners insurance won't cover it unless it's a crime. To complicate matters, the actual facility where it happened is no longer run by Storage Deluxe.

- There is case precedence where their liability should NOT be limited to $5K in a case of egregious negligence. It seems the Superior Court judge overlooked or ignored this in favor of the almighty contract.

- I wrote a letter to the CEO of Storage Deluxe, Nick Coslov, expressing my feelings on the way his company has cavalierly handled the matter since Day One. I have not received the courtesy of any reply.

All options seems to have been exhausted. Why a corporation that serves millions of people in the NYC metro area would act this way in a self-admitted mistake towards a six-year good customer (and neighbor) is amazing to me.