LOST: House was burglarized over the w/e

[gareth harper]

I'm really sorry to hear that.
I've never suffered a break in (touch wood), I can't imagine how it feels, it must be terrible.

Do phone some of the secondhand dealers round about, keep an eye out for car boot sales and markets. Plus keep an eye on e-bay.

And consider how the theives got in, you don't want them back.

I hope things work out for you somehow.

[Jim Chinn]

Sorry to hear about this. I had a bunch of gear stolen out of my garage when
I was mowing in the back yard a couple of years ago. The theives just drove around and grabbed stuff out of open garages in daylight. I was fortunate as the stuff showed up in a pawn shop a couple of weeks later. It pays to have your name on your stuff and keep the serial numbers.

I hope you recover everything.

[gr82bart]

If it's an Asian gang, then circulating the description locally is useless. The goods are making their way to a container ship for one way trip to China.

Regards, Art.

[djklmnop]

Thank you, everone, for all the good advice and support. I just can't wait until this all blows over and that someone gets caught or once the insurance writes a check. Then I can start all over again! I may just start looking for a home in a different state all together.

I think Art may be right. I'm sure the items are on their way down to mexico or up to LA. Hopefully not on a one-way cargo to China!

Psychologically, I still need to recover a bit. The paranoia is still embedded in me for now.

[papagene]

Andy,
I am glad that you and your family are OK. It is terrible having your home so rudely intruded upon. It happend to me twice, once I lost a lot of stuff, the second the guy was caught in the house.
I hope all goes well and that you can successfully get over those fears... it may take a while.

gene

[David A. Goldfarb]

I discovered today that all the doors in our department office were jimmied (summer at the university--not too many people around). I reported it to security, and they've since found another department office broken into. Fortunately so far, and very oddly, the offices don't seem to have been ransacked, and the only thing that anyone can find that was missing was about $10 in change. It's going to cost a good deal more than that to replace broken locks and repair the doors, but it's really strange that someone would take the risk of breaking into at least 8 offices and would leave behind all the computers, printers, CD players, things like fountain pens, etc., and would just take petty cash. It's not as if professors are likely to keep cash in their desks.

[Lee Shively]

I sympathize with you. Years ago, I had a break-in and lost all my large format equipment and all my old Nikon F equipment. They would have cleaned out my apartment but I came home while they were there and they left all the big items in a pile outside the back door when they ran away. What was worse, the bastards then knew my schedule. They came back exactly one week later and took everything they missed the first time. Oddly enough, my neighbor discovered one of my tripods and a camera bag full of filters and odds and ends (but no cameras or lenses) under his back steps about two weeks later. Total horror story!

One bit of advise--don't let the insurance company screw you. I had to fight with mine over the replacement cost of some of the oldest equipment. We finally settled on a reasonable compromise.

[MurrayMinchin]

So sad...I can't imagine what you're going through. Glad to hear everyone is safe, and that you didn't say they took all your finished prints and negatives as well! Sorry I can't offer any advice. I'll be one of the many on APUG who are feeling your pain.

Murray

[joeyk49]

That sucks!

I know...Been there, done that, seen that movie...entire coin collection gone into some addict's veins...

I'll keep the list printed and handy when I'm trolling ebay.

That reminds me to update my insurance policy...

Glad that no one was hurt.

Joe

[mark]

Psychologically, I still need to recover a bit. The paranoia is still embedded in me for now.

It takes time.

We were broken into three years ago while we were out of town. The guy was caught while still in the house and nothing was stolen just taken into evidence (sometimes worse than it getting stolen) since he had stuffed the items into one of my backpacks. My wife has not gotten over it. Just recently, two days ago, she had a long talk with her aunt and told me last night she finally felt like she put things into perspective and could start moving on. She amazed herself last night by not getting up in the middle of the night to make sure all of the doors were locked.