Man Charged With 40 Felonies for Stealing From St. Louis Storage Units

A De Soto man is facing a total of 40 felonies stemming from burglaries he allegedly committed at three separate self-storage facilities in St. Louis city over the last two years.

As of Friday, Matthew Wayne Pelich, 45, is facing a mix of property damage, stealing and burglary charges.

Among the items Pelich allegedly stole from the storage units were designer clothes, jewelry, a microwave oven, 36 bottles of Old Fitzgerald Bonded Bourbon and a pair of weed eaters, according to the police probable cause statement.

Twenty of the counts against Pelich have to do with break-ins he allegedly committed last month at Devon Self-Storage on Kingshighway Boulevard near Tower Grove Park.

Twelve charges against Pelich stem from burglaries allegedly committed at EZ Storage in 2021 and 2022 on the southern edge of Tower Grove South. That facility appears to now be a Life Storage.

The final eight charges against Pelich concern the U-Haul self-storage location on the Hill, near the intersection of Kingshighway Boulevard and Highway 44. Pelich allegedly hit storage units there in March of last year.


According to the police probable cause statement, Pelich did not work alone and surveillance video captured him during all of the incidents. Two eyewitnesses also identified him.

Surveillance video from Devon storage allegedly shows Pelich on the premises in the same Cavalier police later arrested him in.

Court records indicate Pelich is from De Soto. He has no attorney listed at this time.

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