Ever been called paranoid when you lock your car? That's where most gear theft takes place, according to this study.
LensTag, a free service designed to keep track of and recover stolen gear, published a study on stolen gear throughout 2015. Of course this data is based purely on what has been registered through their service, but reading this made me go sign up for an account. A few friends of mine have had gear stolen right out of their cars this year, and it's always pretty devastating. I put gear in the trunk or I keep a blanket over everything in my back seat to keep thieves at bay, and that's worked well so far. A LensTag registry of your gear, plus something like the Bluetooth StickNFind tags will help you track down the bastard who boosted your stuff. In the meantime, revel in some theft-centric stats:
What things do you do to keep your gear safe (especially in your car)? Have you had gear stolen this year?
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5 Comments
They forgot the "taxes" slice...
December 23, 2015 at 10:10AM
I lived in Melbourne for years and never heard of anyone being robbed. I'm sure it happens like anywhere but I never hears of an instance so being No.3 city in this list is hard to believe.
Find it hard to believe people get robbed more than they loose things too. We loose things all the time. How often do we get robbed?
December 23, 2015 at 3:36PM
Airlines might as well be in the burglary section. EVA airlines just so happened to "lose" our ultra prime lenses for the flight from LA to Taiwan. They also ignored our repeated calls (those lenses were valued at $18,000+) and repeatedly skirted around our physical visits to their hub. Not only did we have to delay shoots (more money lost on our awesome producer) to deal with this ridiculous problem, it took 2 more weeks of back and forth battles with these thieves and then of course once the term "lawsuit" was dropped they "just so happened" to track the lenses and of course didn't provide any explanation where it was "found".
ALWAYS make a big deal of your equipment when traveling by air, if you present the items to their staff and make yourself memorable, chances are they won't try anything funny with your stuff. Found that out the hard way. Now when we travel we always make a big deal of what's inside our baggage. It's the only way from protecting yourself from getting robbed.
December 23, 2015 at 3:53PM
Wait.. You checked-in a case with $18K in lenses when everyone knows the airlines will only cover about $1,500? This is why Pelican and others make hard cases the exact maximum size for carry-on bags. Im glad you got your lenses back but unless the (very valuable)piece of kit is literally to big to bring on board, it flies as carry-on.
December 24, 2015 at 7:39AM
I'm reading these comments, and seeing a few "tricks" that might work when flying with gear. But I'm not seeing the word "carnet."
In my experience, the only way to ensure your gear arrives safely is put it on a carnet; get the carnet stamped by customs at departure; get it stamped by customs at arrival; and repeat for all legs of the trip.
While traveling with a carnet is expensive and time-consuming, it creates a legal trail that can be followed if somethings goes missing, and ensures accountability with customs-- on the airline side, anyway.
As for car thefts, we've seen several camera packages removed from cars (rather, we've seen and dealt with the aftermath), and it seems to happen frequently, especially in dense urban areas. The solution is simple: never leave important gear in your car, unattended, even if covered by a jacket or blanket.
December 28, 2015 at 2:30PM