I WAS ROBBED!

[Brad Rippe]

Hi Andrew,

I know this is a long shot, but I saw a Canham 810 lightweight at a well known northern California camera shop on Aug 6. It sold the next week. I had a very good look at it and it had some unique characteristics that I'm sure you could identify if it was yours. You can contact me offline and I'll give you details. I even contacted Keith Canham with very specific questions about it. Again, it's very unlikely it's yours, but it might be worth a look. I've had stuff stolen from me several times and there is such a hopeless feeling, especially if it was photography related.

Brad

[J. P. Mose]

Andrew,

Perhaps the lookout on Ebay could be covered in detail by individuals who watch specific items. For instance, I watch Linhof daily (including all international sites). E-mail me some particulars on your Technika IV and any other Linhof items....I will target this only.

Perhaps others can do the same for your Nikkor lenses, Mamiya, etc.

JP Mose

[John D Gerndt]

Thank you Andrew for your post. In my little world it hadn't occured to me that anyone would want my antiquated stuff; I never gave a thought to being robbed at all. I would not have thought to ask either for assistance with keeping it off ebay. I would have done none of the the thinking I have done as a result of your post.

I will keep a look out for said items and be much more aware of my sources for used gear in the future. I will be recording serial numbers. I will be more afraid and more grateful. You have my sympathies and my thanks.

[QT Luong]

One question about serial numbers. Assuming that they are in your possession, and communicated in
a police report (as well as transmitted to the insurance company, if applicable) , does anyone know whether those numbers are actually used for anything ? Do they get into some kind of database that is checked by dealers or repair services ?

[David A. Goldfarb]

When it happened to us years ago, I got the sense that the serial numbers would be used as evidence in court, in the event that the burglars were caught with the equipment in hand (which was not the case), or if the equipment were found in a pawn shop, etc. At the time there was certainly no database of stolen goods, but that was long ago.

[Eric Rose]

I don't know about your area, but here in Calgary at least, having a monitored alarm system is a major deterent. That and a really mean dog.

My advice to anyone who hasn't done it already is pull out all your camera gear, write down the serial numbers and take digital pics of each piece. Save all the info to a CD and put it in your safety deposit box.

As said before, it's just stuff, hopefully you have insurance.

For anyone who doesn't have insurance, hasn't taken any precautions, or recorded the necessary information, well don't cry to load. It's the same thing as putting your own "kick me" sign on your back.

When I was a kid our house got B&E'd. We had an alarm system but the friggen lazy neighbour that was watering our plants left it turned off. Fortunately my parents had sufficient insurance and had both photographed (keep negs in safety deposit box) and copied down the serial numbers of anything that had one.

Everything was replaced, and in some cases with stuff that was better than what was stolen. It took years for the feeling of violation to dissipate.

But I must say our attack kitty put up quite a fight as the bad guys left lots of blood around where he had clawed them.

Turns out the kids that did the B&E were headed up by the son of a friend of ours. How did we find out? They (father and son) came over one afternoon and as soon as the cat saw the kid he attacked him. Now this is a normally very mild mannered cat you understand. We called the cops and they followed it up. Appears they (the B&E artists) still had a bunch of the stuff stashed at a buddies place.

One honour student and several flunkies off to reform school (the good old days).

[Eric Rose]

Oh ya one more thing. This cat was 1/2 Lynx and was the size of a medium dog. The neighbour kids when they were small use to ride him (for as long as he would put up with it).

[Stew]

Mr. Goldfarb,

I regret that we have not had the pleasure of meeting. While I am envious that you have enough time on your hands that you can play amateur sleuth about people who post to this site, I'm afraid that your sleuthing skills leave something to be desired. As the average 15 year old knows, internet providers such as AOL do not allow one to use one's first initial if that initial, combined with the last name, has been taken by someone else. That same 15 year old might know that two people who live together sometimes post from the same e-mail address. As I am sure you know, personal attacks of this sort, when they have nothing to do with the subject, are the refuge of the witless. When someone goes around "sleuthing" for no apparent purpose than to launch such an attack, and it turns out that the sleuthing results in an assertion of facts that are nothing more than wishful, we are no longer in the realm of the witless, but rather in the realm of the pathetic.

There are many things that I am sorry about in this world. Of those things, the following are not at the top of the list: the theft of camera gear, especially if it is insured, as it should be; getting ripped off on E-bay; and getting ripped off by a New York camera store (insert one of two names here). If someone wants to start a thread, complete with banner capitals, called I WAS ROBBED!, about a break and enter, that is his business. If others want to engage in a group therapy session over it, they are entitled to do so. If they want to establish a sub-category of this site about the injustices of the world, perhaps moderated by an expert on 12 step programmes, more power to them. I just have trouble getting all indignant and weepy over this kind of stuff, maybe because my capacity for feeling indignant and weepy is not limitless. If that makes me a schmuck, then I plead guilty.

[Frank Bagbey]

Please, please do not engrave any of your photo equipment. You can kiss its value goodby if you do. When you try to trade it in, instead of lucking out to get half the value, you will receive maybe 10% of what it is worth if it is engraved. Would you pay fair prices for a piece of gear with someone's name and address and drivers license engraved on it? Of course not!
Record all your serial numbers and keep the records at the bank or in a safe place. Invest in a hugh gun safe! As inconvenient as it is to keep most of the gear in there, a good gun safe is a great investment in peace of mind.

It takes a long time to get over the sense of violation from coming home and finding your backdoor busted in, glass everywhere, all the lights off in the house, things scattered everywhere, your televisions missing, your stereo gear missing, three pistols missing, and long guns laid out on the bed with other goodies waiting to get carried out. Having interrupted the robbery, the cops got here in a hurry and actually chased the two culprits across the neighborhood, before the bad guys escaped. The happy part of the story is a retired Sheriff who was a real estate agent found all the stuff in a basement about 3 blocks away and realized it was stolen. He reported it to the police and the evidence tech, who was a friend, was thrilled to let me know it was recovered. One walnut speaker cabinet had a small scratch, everything else was recovered in good shape, except for the 3 pistols. They are on a list of stolen property and may someday turn up someone for receiving stolen property. To this day I can still hear the crunch of glass around the backdoor and experience the feelings I felt that night. Maybe one does not get over this feeling of violation, after all.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Hi everyone who replied,

The police recovered my van and my photo vest was left inside with one light metre in pocket. I was quite happy about that. I live in Coquitlam which is like a suburb of Vancouver, BC. Home invasions and car theft are huge here. LF community is very small here, so hopefully I will be able to recover some stuff. I was talking to one guy and he said a lot of stuff is fenced in Calgary, not here. So Eric, if you here or see anything please let me know. Thanks again for all your advice. I really have no one else to talk to who would understand how I feel right now as far as losing my gear goes. I really appreciate you guys!! Even you, Jon! Jeff, b&E and the removal of property is robbery as far as I'm concerned! My kids are freaked out about this.