Sergey Lakotiy was convicted of possession of a stolen vehicle after police were given access to the common area of a locked storage facility and found him taking apart a stolen vehicle. Mr. Lakotiy argued that because the police did not have a warrant to enter the locked common area, the search was unconstitutional. The Court of Appeals didn’t agree because the person that gave police access to the common area of the storage facility had actual authority to give the police access to the area. Also, the Court held that Mr. Lakotiy had “no state or federal constitutionally protected privacy interest in the common area of a commercial storage facility.”
