Re: [Leica] Stolen Leicas--how do you prevent that from happening?

[ternahan <ternahan@sonic.net>]

What recommendations for insurance do folks have? My rider policies have all
been discotninued.
trish
ternahan@gentlelens.net


> From: "Ted Grant" <tedgrant@home.com>
> Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 20:28:42 -0700
> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Stolen Leicas--how do you prevent that from  happening?
> 
> As a general observation on this topic of preventing equipment from being
> stolen I have to ask what kind of hotels have you or do some of you folks
> stay in?
> 
> So far it sounds like the hotel staff where you stay are a bunch of mindless
> thieves and steal everything in sight out in the open.  My good fortune has
> been I've never lost anything out of a hotel room in 50 years of traveling
> the world.  Now I've got to start worrying because I said that! ;-)
> 
> I suppose the Good Guy upstairs has been keeping an eye on my gear. As far
> as walking around with cameras and in particular Leica's, the majority of
> the bad guys in the world don't know a leica from a bed pan, Canons and
> Nikons they do.
> 
> No one has as yet, mentioned whenever you put your bag or camera down on the
> ground that you put one foot inside the shoulder strap or neck strap. That
> means if your attention is diverted no one can pick it up and walk away with
> it.
> 
> Black is better than flashy chrome no matter what manufacturer. The chrome
> is bright and beautiful therefore it must be expensive, ergo steal me! The
> black one is nothing, however, some jerk stealing really doesn't give a hoop
> what the value is they take it and figure they'll get something for it.
> 
> As Marc James Small can attest, petty thieves are pretty stupid and have in
> general not the slightest idea of the value of what they take, they just
> take whatever they can quickly get away with and sell it for whatever they
> can.
> 
> As in, they'd throw the camera gear away and sell the case! That says
> something about the dummies who everyone here appears to fear.
> 
> Your own common sense of looking after your gear will keep you and it safe,
> it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that.
> 
> My only major loss and recovery was an R8, 35-70 and winder in Malaysia '98
> during the Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur.  I was distracted and
> set the camera down on the seat beside me and was called over to the side of
> the swimming pool, when I realized I didn't have the camera I turned around
> and it was gone!
> 
> Thanks to the diligent LUG members in KL and throughout Malaysia, 14 months
> later I received the camera back in Canada in the identical condition when
> it went missing.  True! And if you check the archives in the fall of 1999
> you'll find the complete story.
> 
> In any event, some folks get hit and others don't no matter what precautions
> one takes, so have your stuff insured.
> ted
> 
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> Ted Grant Photography Limited
> www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marc James Small" <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 6:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Stolen Leicas--how do you prevent that from happening?
> 
> 
>> At 05:33 PM 9/1/01 -0700, Jim Laurel wrote:
>>> In hotel rooms, I just locked up spare gear in a porter case, and cable
>>> locked that to something in the room.  Most hotel room theft is
>>> opportunistic.  You are at risk if you leave something out in the open.
>>> Hotel staff are much more likely to go for that stuff before they go
>>> rummaging around in your bags.
>> 
>> In the US, it is normal for salesmen who have to leave their sample cases
>> in their rooms to leave a bottle of bourbon or gin or, best of all, vodka,
>> visible in the room.  This seems to satisfy the larcenous feelings of many
>> hotel staff members.
>> 
>> I do not know if the same applies overseas, but most US hotel staff
> members
>> are from the lower working class, and wouldn't know a Leica from Jim
>> Larkin.  They MIGHT know a Canon or a Nikon, but that would be the limit.
>> And the risk of removing the gear carries with it some risk of getting
>> caught -- and, to these folks, cashing in on this stuff is damned
>> difficult:  the fences they might know would deal with are specialists in
>> car stereos and boom boxes and, maybe, paste jewelry, but would know
>> nothing at all about anything more sophisticated.  So, they would steal
>> your camera case FOR the case, and throw the cameras in a trash can.  The
>> case they could sell.
>> 
>> Marc
>> 
>> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
>> Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!
>> 
>> 
>