This week, employees of the Public Storage outpost at 16th and Treat streets in the Mission were treated to an unwelcome sight. As tipster Robin P. informed us, the sidewalk in front of the storage facility was repeatedly stenciled with advertisements for a local startup called Omni, which competes with Public Storage in the storage industry. 

"Yeah, we got tagged," said a Public Storage employee, who noted that the stencils appeared on Friday or Saturday night without the storage provider's knowledge or consent. She had no knowledge of whether legal action would be taken or when the stencils were set to be removed, referring us to the company's corporate office, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

We reached out to Omni to learn more, but the company wasn't initially aware of the stencils' existence. However, VP of communications and content Laura Faustman eventually found that the stencils were placed outside of Public Storage by what she describes as an "overzealous street team member."

"The stencils are chalk, and we normally use them for farmers markets and other events," she said. "A member of our street team put them there." 

Faustman acknowledged that the stencils are "totally obnoxious," and that Omni would visit Public Storage to remove them today or tomorrow. 

Street stencils on sidewalks have been a topic of controversy in the city in recent months, most notably via a series of permanent paint stencils promoting a Justin Bieber album that appeared around the Haight and SoMa.

In December, the City Attorney's office vowed to "aggressively pursue all available penalties and costs from those responsible for ... commercially-sponsored graffiti vandalism," but it remains unclear if Bieber and his record label were ever fined for the vandalism.