! stolen camera gear !

[patrick dirksen]

Hi all,

On behalf of a friend a request. He had his camera bag stolen last week in a car garage in Haarlem (The Netherlands). Police say they can't do anything and insurance will pay only a very small part of the value...
Although the chances are small I figured the stuff might be offered for sale on Ebay and/or similar sites. As some of you no doubt use those sites more or less regularly, could I ask you to look out for a complete set of camera gear offered for sale?
Main items he lost are:
-Canon EOS 3D
-Canon EOS 30D
-Canon EF-S 17-85 4-5.6 IS lens
-Canon EF-S 18-55 lens
-Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro lens
-Sigma 50-500 APO DG lens
-Sigma 17-70 2.8 lens
-Canon EF-S 50 F1.8 lens
-Canon Speedlite 430 EX + diffusor
All of this in a Lowepro Commercial AW camera bag, plus of course all kind of accessories like filters, grip, memory cards, batteries etcetera.

As said I guess the chances are small, but you never know. If you do see something offered which resembles (part of) this collection, please let me know so we can check it out.
Many thanks in advance!

PS Moderators: I hope this is allowed this way, if needed please move to another forum.
Kind regards,

Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation

[Arjan]

Ouch, that must hurt! But maybe a good idea to post this in more forums that are also more internationally read like Germany or Belgium as most crimes are bordercrossing.

[Kleintje Pils]

I guess he didn't write down the serial numbers? These would help a lot if it's for sale on e-bay or marktplaats.

[patrick dirksen]

@ Arjen,

I thought about that indeed. I don't want to "pollute" too many forums, but maybe the moderators can tell wether this will be allowed. And yes, I realise I could/should have asked them before posting, sorry! I was just too angry and willing to do something to think of this before.....

@ Kleintje Pils,

Yes, the serial numbers of the main items are known.

Thanks for reading and replying!

[Maurice]

Hi Patrick,

Terrible news! There is more news in this item however. I see that the long awaited Eos 3D is finally available???

Anyway, hope your friend will be lucky enough to get his gear back!

Cheers, Maurice.

[Redskin]

About the canon items:
report them to canon as stolen. In case any of these items ever show up for a repair/cleaning.

[patrick dirksen]

Woops, the "3D" should be a 350D, my mistake. And thanks for the advice to report them to Canon, I'll pass that on to my friend!

[Key]

Moved now on-topic, and made sticky.
Registered here already?

Good luck!

Erik

[FALCONCREST]

What a nightmare!
I spoke someone with the same problem: within a week all his gear showed up on Marktplaats!
police monitored him during a set up "pseudo koop" at a car-park, after a signal he gave seeing it was indeed his gear the police rushed in and arrested the sellers.
Good Luck !

[patrick dirksen]

Thanks for making it a sticky topic!
And I told my friend about the http://www.fotoapparatuur.nl-site, I'm sure he will register there soon.

[Iwan Bogels]

Hi Patrick,

To have you camera stolen is the doom scenario for every photographer. I hope the thieves are stupid enough to put everything at Marktplaats as "a package deal", making it easy to identify (and hopefully retreive it). Just like Key I had the same suggestion, and I would be scanning Marktplaats, Speurders and other second hand websites for weeks to come.

For myself, to learn from this, I have three questions:

- Did your buddy place his gear (partially) in sight in the car, or did he store it in a fully closed trunk (not the station car type, with a sheet cover) ?
- What kind of camera insurance did your buddy have ? Specialized individual valuables (instrumenten of kostbaarheden), or was it included in his home inventory (inboedel) ?
- You say that "insurance will pay only a very small part of the value...", but can you give an indication on how much they will refund? 10%, 25%, 70%?

Again, having your equipment stolen, either at home of during a trip, is one of my wordt nightmares. But it's simply impossible to have your camera's with you everywhere and all the time. Leaving it at home is one thing, but when you're out and about you often have to make choices. Sometimes it's safer to leave your camera bag in the hotel or even in the car, as the risk of being robbed in the street or in a restaurant is bigger. So what can we do to make things safer of reduce possible losses.

Can you shine a light on this occasions ?

Good luck
Iwan

[patrick dirksen]

Hi Iwan,

He is indeed scanning those sites, and will keep on doing that for some time I guess...
To answer your questions:
-He left them out of sight, but doesn't have a closed trunk. Indeed they were under the "hoedenplank". Problem might have been that there was a group of youngsters hanging around who saw him park his car in a corner with the back against the wall, so they night have suspected there was something in the back.....
-He didn't have a special insurance for valuable items, "just" the regular home insurance.
-I don't know (yet) how much he will get back, sorry.

One thing I learned from this myself is that I have to check and update my own insurance. I do have a special insurance for my equipment, but that's not up to date....