Stolen Camera gear

[Tom_M]

Please don't leave your equipment in your truck, or car, overnight. I was heartbroken. At least my insurance gave me a good settlement, minus my $500 deductible. Of course there were some irreplaceable shots on my CF card. I hope nobody has to suffer such a preventable loss.

[shrugs*]

Was it out in the open or did they just stumble on a goldmine?

Sorry for your loss, atleast insurance will fill in the monetary loss!

[Tom_M]

To add insult it was parked right in my driveway.:cry:

[coreypolis]

thats too bad, atleast you had insurance.

But this is also a great lesson, never leave gear in a car, its a possible theft problem, and its bad for the gear. Heat / Cold can do damage to gear. My gear never stay in a vehicle unless I'm in it too.

[grego]

Insurance is a must on gear. I sometimes have to leave my gear in my car, but never for overnight. I always do worry though, but I'm glad my insurance covers me well.

[SoaringUSAEagle]

When I have to leave my gear in my car, it is normally in the trunk. And there is never anything in the front... I keep my car as clean as possible... So no one would think I have anything good lol.

[Lord_Malone]

Sucks, man. Sorry to hear about your gear. At least you have an excuse to upgrade. ;) I always take my gear out of the car overnight. Even if my car is parked in the garage. I just sleep better knowing my gear is in the same room with me.

[Fureinku]

1 stolen car, 1 broken into, nothing worth value besides whats bolted to the car is ever left in it anymore, sad world, had my garage open around 7 pm, and someone waltzed in and stole my lawnmore, weedeater, and air compressor too..

[Permagrin]

Whoa. Serious bummer.
And you're right...it's a very sad world...

[lostdoggy]

Sorry to hear that!!!
But look at the bright side, there is a Polar Bear out there shooting w/ a Canon 20D an his boy is carrying a Can of Coke!!! It would make for a real cool commercial.

[Fureinku]

he may get whats coming to him if he tries to sell to a buy/sell/trade camera store

When i was at a local camera store, there were several squad cars and 2 men being apprehended, the salesman told me that they had tried to sell a camera that the serial number did not match their info... so hopefully, thats how this situation will turn out...

[jblksmith1]

They stole my harley july 20 at lunchtime while I sat on this website checking out some cool pics. I heard her fire up and got to watch somebody else ride away on my bike. It was my second theft in 3 yrs. This one was insured though. The first one just had liability. Sorry for your loss, I feel for you. Photos of my missing bikes are here:
http://www.pbase.com/jblksmith1/allison

[dpastern]

Sorry to hear about it, at least insurance covered most of it. I'm still a firm believer in the Saudi Arabia method of punishment for stealing - one finger for each crime committed. Jail isn't a deterrent for these bastards.

Dave

[JimAskew]

Bummer! I never leave gear unattended...too many low lifes out there willing to take your hard earned money and goods rather than work for a living :evil:

I have all my gear insured for theft and accidential damage. The premium is $86 per year and I sure do sleep better at night :)

[Andy_T]

That's too bad :(
My car was broken into recently as well.
The thieves made off with my sports gear (running shoes) and the interior rearview mirror :rolleyes: after trying to hot-wire the car without success.
Guess they must have been desparate.

Best regards,
Andy

PS: If you have the serial numbers, you might go to www.photo.net and enter them in the stolen photo gear database.

[Jim G]

Man, that sucks :( God, I must be so much more paranoid than some people.. I'd never dream of leaving my gear in the car.. I can imagine how heartbreaking it is to lose it :(

[lmelendez]

Sorry to hear that...

Did you keep copy of the serial numbers? maybe you should publish them in case someone sees them.....

I keep all the serial numbers of my stuff in a secure place. If they ever get stolen, I can prove they were mine if they are ever recovered (unlikely... but oh well, it is worth a try)

Leo.

[MrsKitty]

Sorry to hear about it, at least insurance covered most of it. I'm still a firm believer in the Saudi Arabia method of punishment for stealing - one finger for each crime committed. Jail isn't a deterrent for these bastards.

Dave

Wanna vote for me for President?

1st offense: a finger

2nd offense: the hand

3rd offense: the head.

[photomd]

What a bummer.

I'm just one more adding a vote to insurance. Since I'm an amatuer, my insurance is 1% of the total value on my homeowners minus deductable. Seems like a deal to me.

[Tommy]

Wow.... that really sucks. Talk to your neighbors. See if any of them had anything stolen recently. My friend Jackie had her kayak stolen a few weeks ago. She found out from her neighbors that they've had stuff stolen also. Well, just yesterday, one neighbor found out it was two teenagers in the neighborhood, and coonfronted them. The kids coughed up all the stolen goods, and are now dealing with the police. Most everyone got their stuff back unharmed. In situations like this, it's good to have a good neighborly relationship with those that live around you.

Hope you get your gear back!

[Mark_Cohran]

A number of years ago, while on vacation, three young men broke into my house and stole all my stereo, computer and photo equipment. Ruined the vacation and their lives, as they were caught and convicted. Because of the insurance, I actually came out well. I had a complete inventory, with serial numbers, of all the high value items I owned on my laptop. I was able to print this out and give it to the police and the insurance company - this helped the police to catch them, and the insurance company to replace my gear.

Mark

[Jamie Holladay]

Serious bummmer. +1 for insurance!

[SuzyView]

Driveways are not safe. For some reason, Someone broke into my minivan one time and stole my son's diaper bag, it looked like a camera bag. My comment, I hope there was a dirty diaper in there! I was glad I didn't have my wallet in there. They didn't even steal my Babylon 5 CD's. Stupid thieves.

[jtg]

On those rare times that I must leave my equipment in my car I use a heavy bicycle cable to lock my pelican case to the vehicle. It's not 100% secure but I figure unless the thief has a bolt cutter at the very least it will slow them down.

[canoflan]

Just a suggestion from some military experience...out of site/out of mind; assuming you have to leave it in the car.
I often leave my gear in my office at work, but it is still out of site. Additionally, you don't have to tell everyone about your gear, etc... and where you are taking it. Knowledge is power to thieves and when they know what is in that bag, they get curious.
I have left my gear in my car before and I do put it in the trunk, but I don't tell anyone but my wife and actually am in the habit of not telling her unless she needs to know. It's all about habits and the more of a habit you have of telling people stuff, the easier it is to slip and let people know what you have.
I know you can only do so much when you are making a living, but that is where locked, metal, camera gear boxes come in handy. I am thinking of investing in one myself when I think that I have approx. $6000 worth of gear floating around at any given time. What's another couple hundred to keep it safe via a locked metal box.

Just some thoughts and hope that you get an even better setup with the insurance money and that the police recover your equipment too.

[RichardtheSane]

Hard luck :(

About leaving stuff in the trunk of the car... On the occasions I know I will have to do this I stop a good distance from where I plan on parking and put the gear in the trunk. Then I can park in my intended location, get out of my card, and walk away. A thief sees you move a bag to the trunk it will raise the 'is that bag valuable?' question...

[steved110]

It only takes a moment's inattention for all your good security habits to be of no avail. Bad luck on your theft, but at least you had the insurance cover.
It is sickening when you get robbed, the inconvenience of the whole thing is insult to injury after your loss- repairs to the car, calls to the police and insurance, not a good scene.

when my car got broken into at the supermarket - the thief took my dirty old work knapsack out fo the passenger foot well after breaking the window. He got a grubby old bag ( which I got back from the local council gardener who found it) and an ancient cell phone the size of a house brick - the main hassle for me was getting the window fixed, and having to make a police report to make sure my insurance paid out.

[dpastern]

Wanna vote for me for President?

1st offense: a finger

2nd offense: the hand

3rd offense: the head.

No. Fingers do just fine. Most burglars/thiefs will keep doing it, especially if they have a drug related habit. When they start losing fingers, and get to the point where they don't have any, they can't get any work (or it'll be very hard). They also won't be able to steal. You place legislation in place banning them from welfare as well. No money, no food, can't steal, and the rest is history. It'll set a very hard example to other fellow criminals. The current jail/fine system isn't effective.

Anyways, I've never had any gear stolen, but if I ever caught one in the act, on my property, watch out. My property, my castle, I'm king of it. If you're on it, you answer to me and I'll kick the living *hit out of you as a lesson. I don't really care what the law says about reasonable force being used. That'd be the first thing I'd do as Prime Minister - bring in laws saying that if you're on a property, doing something illegal, you have absolutely NO rights at all. None. Period. Take it to court and it gets thrown out in a second.

Dave

[DavidW]

I'll add my vote to various things mentioned in this thread. I have all my dates of purchase, serial numbers and values in a spreadsheet, together with a PDF file of all the receipts and invoices. Not only are these files stored on my computer and in my backups, but I keep a copy uploaded on a shell account so that a total catastrophe (such as a fire and the loss of all my backups) will still leave me with a copy of this data.

My insurance company (specialist photographic policy) has the details, serial numbers and values of the larger items, but not the many small items that add up to so much.


If I leave anything in my car, it's locked in the boot, the car alarm is set, and the kit is in a camera bag inside a Pacsafe. The Pacsafe will stop anyone casual, though it will last about five seconds against bolt cutters.



David

[VisualOddity]

I'm sorry to hear man. It took me over a year just to get/afford my XT, so I don't know what I would do if it were stolen... :(