What to do when your camera was stolen?

[benhai_zhang1]

<p>Last Saturday, a thief stolen my camera, flash and 3 lenses from my house. It used to be quite safe in the past. I checked crimereports.com and seems thefts are everywhere recently. I live in California. My friend told me that California released lots of small criminals. Plus the high jobless rate.</p>

<p>So what to do in such a situation? My wife doesn't want me to buy another DSLR. She thought that's luxury form a thief's point of view. So bad! This depression really touches everybody.</p>

<p>Ben</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Sorry to hear that, but this is a perfect opportunity to start over. BTW, do you have insurance?</p>

<p>BTW, I would notify the police and check your local pawn shop, Craig's List, etc.</p>

[benhai_zhang1]

<p>I have insurance but if I claim they will increase my premium for 3 years. I also have to pay deductible, so there is no savings there. This thief is professional. The police can't find any sign of break through but my son found out the outside handle of sliding door is broken one day later. They only grab the camera and even didn't touch the camcorders and cashes in wallet.</p>

<p>Like you said this is a perfect opportunity to start over. </p>

 

[commtrd]

<p>Our house was just broken into but thankfully they did not have time to get at my camera gear. I have it insured but still do not want it to get stolen. We installed roll-up shutters on all windows and doors in the house to help prevent access forcibly (they kicked in the front door) which will also help when a hurricane si coming since I will not have to board up the windows.</p>

<p>With the economy the way it is, expect to hear more and more of thefts increasing. And insure that camera gear!</p>

[phil_burt]

<p>Well the first thing I might do is sit down a cry .... but in reality make a Police report and hopefully you have it insured.<br>

I have all of my camera gear insured right down to the sd cards with my home owners policy as a rider. I have up to $10,000.00 for $30.00 yearly no deductible. I don't have $10,000 dollars worth of equipment so if I get something new all I have to do is copy the receipt to them and it becomes covered immediately.<br>

I can imagine that the premiums could go up if I needed to make a claim but if I lost it all I surely would make a claim.<br>

I do believe that if you would be a working Professional the cost would be different.<br>

phil b<br>

benton, ky</p>

[matthew_newton]

<p>I am with Phil on this one. I don't have a rider, but at the same time my insurance covers personal property up to a certain value even if it isn't in my home. I'd have to double check the amount, but I think it is up to $5,000. No deductible either. My rates would likely go up, but if we are talking several thousand in camera gear then an extra $100-300 still a lot less then replacing the equipment out of pocket.<br>

In my case I probably only have about $2,000 in camera gear, though some of it is so rare it would be hard to actually replace (some 3rd party Olympus OM mount lenses are extremely rare even if they aren't worth more then a couple of hundred dollars). That is what would hit me the hardest is the amount of time and effort I spent to acquire the gear, not the price tag associated. It could take me 3-4 years to acquire all the same gear (or longer) because of some of its scarcity. Some of the stuff only comes up for auction once or twice a year (or every couple of years).</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Sometimes when contemplating the purchase of a piece of Canon equipment of unknown history, I've called Canon for any information they've had that they could share with me. I've gotten sketchy details of complaints, inquiries, and service histories this way (to the extent that Canon could share with me without violating confidentialities), but the main purpose of my inquiries has been to check for a history of theft.</p>

<p>Anyway, assuming anyone else does what I do, I'd give the manufacturer a call, and ask them to put a note in your equipment's history that it's been stolen.</p>

<p>Also watch Ebay and Craigslist like a hawk.</p>

<p>I've read that pawn shops are so highly regulated now that they are no longer likely routes for fencing stolen goods. I don't know whether this is true.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

[matthew_newton]

<p>Oh and it does sound wierd that they only swiped your camera gear. Was it on display/evident through any windows? Left out when people worked on your house (HVAC guy, plumber, house cleaner, etc)?<br>

If stored out of sight through any windows and you haven't had any 'strangers' in to your house in quite awhile I'd wonder why the heck they swiped just that and for that matter how the heck they knew about it or where to find it (while disregarding other valuables). Unless they were literally just trying to steal the gear for themself that seems odd that they wouldn't swipe wallets, jewlery, etc.</p>

<p>Was the handle broken upon discovering the theft? Or was it broken the day after discovering the theft? Seems like a heck of an oversight for the police not finding it. That or someone trying to cover up how they broke in or trying to make it look like a break in after the fact (because they didn't break in to steal it).</p>

[benhai_zhang1]

<p>Thanks for the inputs. Definitely I'd put security lights and maybe install a security system. My stuff didn't worth too much, around $1000. I get them used from local and ebay. Oh, the flash I bought new. I'd also check the equipment history in the future. Based on current economy situation, I'd not buy new equipment before the economy getting better.</p>

<p>After so many years my equipments are sentimental. I'd still miss them for a while.</p>

 

[katey_kay]

<p>My burglar protection are known as Darby and Libby, my two Old English Sheepdogs. They both weigh over 80 pounds and bark loudly at anyone approaching the house.</p>

<p>In reality, they would help the thief carry out the items, but most thiefs don't know that, plus the neighbors might notice the commotion.</p>

[benhai_zhang1]

<p>A dog! Yes, that would be a wonderful solution!</p>

 

[phil_burt]

<p>Well the first thing I might do is sit down a cry .... but in reality make a Police report and hopefully you have it insured.<br>

I have all of my camera gear insured right down to the sd cards with my home owners policy as a rider. I have up to $10,000.00 for $30.00 yearly no deductible. I don't have $10,000 dollars worth of equipment so if I get something new all I have to do is copy the receipt to them and it becomes covered immediately.<br>

I can imagine that the premiums could go up if I needed to make a claim but if I lost it all I surely would make a claim.<br>

I do believe that if you would be a working Professional the cost would be different.<br>

phil b<br>

benton, ky</p>

[benhai_zhang1]

<p>I don't have receipt for all of them. I have receipt and serial numbers for the Sb-600 and the 50-135mm lens. My best wish is that those equipments can go to some good hands.<br>

There are too many things this year.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Most people don't have their serial numbers written down. You might want to check out MyHomeAssets.com for their software to track your stuff and make copies of your info before such a problem occurs. Another thought is a friend of mine recovered a lens from Nikon that had been stolen a few years earlier. Apparently they have some tracking system to look out for stolen equipment. I don't know what equipment you use, but maybe your brand's service people have a list.</p>

[JAPster]

<p>You also might want to call around or visit the pawn shop's in your area. If the the theif was looking to get quick cash from your camera he/she might try to pawn it. Pawn shops will frequently get the pawner's fingerprint, address, and a copy of their driver's license. That way if something they got was stolen property they can track down the person who pawned it. There is the rare chance you might find your gear in a pawn shop before it gets sold off. However, how you go about proving that is (ie, was) your camera, is another issue. Might be hard to prove if you did not have a record of the serial numbers or other supporting documents that record the serial number.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>My dog would bark like the dickens when the burglar was outside, but would probably practice the art of submissive urination upon entry....</p>

<p>Lots of buzz recently on the www about Facebook, Twitter, et al. being used by thieves to identify people who are away from their homes. (usually entitled something like "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/17/please-rob-me-site-tells_n_465966.html">Please Rob Me</a> ")</p>

[benhai_zhang1]

<p>This triggers me something about identity theft. My stuff got stolen after I ordered the 50-135mm lens from ebay. Before that there was a hacker that intrude my companies intranet, as a result they got my ebay username and password from my office. It spend me lots of time to clear my ebay account and bank account. I'd guess the thief somehow got my recent ebay buying list and then directly go to my house and grab the camera and lens away. This could explain why they only took away my photo gear but not other stuff!<br /> Anyway, I'm closing the ebay and paypal account. Very sad to think that ebay is becoming a thief's tool.</p>

[commtrd]

<p>I never trusted ebay or paypal. I have always refused to use either one. I have a buddy who bought a water pump for his big block chevy crate motor on the airboat from ebay and when he got it the thing was trashed. So he lost twice since he had to go buy one at the parts store after that. I can learn from other's mistakes (at least sometimes) and will never have anything to do with the two above mentioned entities for anything especially not any high-priced camera gear.</p>

[katey_kay]

<p>On this line of thought, I recently read that I-phones have a feature where you can track the location of the stolen cellphone, and shut it down completely</p>

[george_peng1]

<p>Yes - iPhones, if you use MobileMe, have the ability to be tracked via GPS. Likewise, you can wipe all your data remotely if you're not of the mind to physically track it down. One of the gadget blogs had a first-person story of a guy who drove around town with his friend tracking his phone and finally getting it while using this feature from a laptop with cell-modem capability.</p>

<p>Similarly, someone caught a thief because he was able to turn on the cam on his laptop remotely, which then shot pictures of the thief lookly dumbly at it. Didn't take the cops too long to get to him after that.</p>

[Ray House]

In your workspace is the section for listing your equipment and it also has the provision for listing serial #'s. So if you ever need a quick reference for situations like this Photo.net is the perfect place.

[philip_ashley]

<p>Insurance is the best way to go in these circumstances, however, I read some months ago on another websites forums, that the danger of adding camera equipment to one's home owners insurance is that, if a claim is made, possibly, some insurance company's, might drop your home owners insurance if a claim is too big. I don't remember the details of this statement, only that at the time, I felt glad that I had my camera equipment insured as a separate policy. This seems to be a little known part of home/camera insurance coverage from what I was able to tell. Perhaps there are contributers on this site that have a clearer understanding of how this home insurance/camera rider policy works.</p>

[johnny_anderson]

<p>Go to a gun shop and price gun safes. They weigh 300 to 1400 lbs depending on size. You want one that weighs enough that two people can't carry it out of the house. Costco had Winchester safes on sale recently. Keep your gear locked up, it's the only way to keep a thief from getting your gear.</p>

<p>You can also check your local locksmiths to see if they carry used safes. But I've found that a lot of the time the gun shops can beat the locksmiths on price. In Washington state there is no sales tax on gun safes, so check your local state tax regulations. I've noticed that Home Depot sometimes carries gun safes (at least in my local area).</p>

[benhai_zhang1]

<p>Never thought about gun safes. Maybe this is another choice for valuables.</p>