Stolen Alpa Gear:

[GrahamWelland]

I thought I might socialize some details of my recently stolen Alpa gear that occured in the SF Bay Area on Nov 15th. Smash and grab as I saw them in Emeryville CA.

The following are the items and serial numbers that matter. Should you see them on eBay or locally being sold in a pawn store or otherwise perhaps you could let me and the Emeryville PD know:

Alpa 12 STC Body & Wooden Grip		0150760
Alpa 12 TC		0170943
Alpa Rodenstock HR Digaron-W 4/32 mm *SB17 lens		12101594
Alpa Rodenstock HR Digaron-W 5.6/90 mm *SB34 lens		11972624
Alpa Schneider Apo-Digitar 5.6/150 N *SB34 lens		15009613

Luckily I have insurance but it'll never quite cover the loss of the other ancillary items that also disappeared in the stolen Alpa bag. They also stole another bag with Actus Mini and A7RII but ultimately it's only the Alpa lenses that piss me off. Luckily the perps didn't get to all items in the trunk of my car and so ended up with just dirty laundry and the couple of F-Stop bags with camera gear - my other bags with Cambo Actus DB+ and IQ150 DB were overlooked. Ditto my Sony RX1R bag.

Fortunately it's insured but the inconvenience and likely partial payout are irritating as you can imagine.

 

[danlindberg]

That is absolutely terrible Graham! I really hope it will be recovered undamaged or atleast solved moneywise by insurance. But the hassle...omg.

Yet another reminder to never leave anything in a car unattended! I rule I go by and never bring more than I can carry.

I wish you the best...

 

[GrahamWelland]

Thanks Dan,

I parked in a well lit busy parking area outside a restaurant away from dark dodgy city center locations. I deliberately took out my travel laptop bag with MBPs (2) and also my passport and immigration information. I NEVER leave this in the car. I also covered up the bags in the bag of the car with the trunk/rear seats folded down because I had too much stuff. I was obviously the mark. It was a well lit, busy parking lot and the only reason why I stopped there.

They were parked in the lot and obviously watched me leave with my gear and cover the other stuff and within 10 minutes (when I returned from the rest room) they were in the process of stealing my stuff. We approached them but they tried to run us down in their SUV.

It happens to everyone eventually. Nobody got hurt forunately although I was homicidal at the time, especially as I saw the scumbags doing the theft. Insurance is your friend and socializing the issue is quite therapeutic too actually.

Be careful out there and it's worth paying the insurance premiums!

Graham

 

[Pemihan]

That's horrible Graham, I so sorry to hear that. ****ing *** holes!!!
I hope this gets resolved quickly, either by you getting the gear back or a trouble free insurance payout.

Best
Peter

 

[GrahamWelland]

Thanks - it's just stuff but I agree with your sentiments. Karma is my fall back and hopefully the scumbags get theirs ...

 

[Pelorus]

Graham I'm so sorry to hear that. Gear can be replaced, insurance is a great thing...it's the feeling that it leaves that takes time to go away.

 

[voidshatter]

Thanks Dan,

I parked in a well lit busy parking area outside a restaurant away from dark dodgy city center locations. I deliberately took out my travel laptop bag with MBPs (2) and also my passport and immigration information. I NEVER leave this in the car. I also covered up the bags in the bag of the car with the trunk/rear seats folded down because I had too much stuff. I was obviously the mark. It was a well lit, busy parking lot and the only reason why I stopped there.

They were parked in the lot and obviously watched me leave with my gear and cover the other stuff and within 10 minutes (when I returned from the rest room) they were in the process of stealing my stuff. We approached them but they tried to run us down in their SUV.

It happens to everyone eventually. Nobody got hurt forunately although I was homicidal at the time, especially as I saw the scumbags doing the theft. Insurance is your friend and socializing the issue is quite therapeutic too actually.

Be careful out there and it's worth paying the insurance premiums!

Graham

Sorry to hear about such terrible things! It's hard to believe that they target Alpa gear... Which country was that? It's perhaps safer to use Sony instead!

 

[jlm]

condolences;i also had a car break-in last year in SF right on the embarcadero; lost some oly gear. later was told the bay area is rampant with car thefts

sorry for your loss graham, the violation, the pia, the so personal reminder of how base two bit thugs can be

 

[Ken_R]

Thanks Dan,

I parked in a well lit busy parking area outside a restaurant away from dark dodgy city center locations. I deliberately took out my travel laptop bag with MBPs (2) and also my passport and immigration information. I NEVER leave this in the car. I also covered up the bags in the bag of the car with the trunk/rear seats folded down because I had too much stuff. I was obviously the mark. It was a well lit, busy parking lot and the only reason why I stopped there.

They were parked in the lot and obviously watched me leave with my gear and cover the other stuff and within 10 minutes (when I returned from the rest room) they were in the process of stealing my stuff. We approached them but they tried to run us down in their SUV.

It happens to everyone eventually. Nobody got hurt forunately although I was homicidal at the time, especially as I saw the scumbags doing the theft. Insurance is your friend and socializing the issue is quite therapeutic too actually.

Be careful out there and it's worth paying the insurance premiums!

Graham

Also I read somewhere that some perps prowl know photo spots and then follow their mark until they leave their vehicle unattended with the gear inside. I mean, no perp is that lucky to stumble upon $$$$ photo gear by randomly smash and grabbing cars. What are the odds? Since you actually saw the vehicle they were in and I am pretty sure they got photographed by a traffic or security camera if not right in the vicinity where the incident happened en route from where you last were they can be identified no problem. It is possible they followed you.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

This is horrible . The scary thing it could have been a photographer in your same location you where shooting earlier in the day and followed you. Scumbags but you do carry too much gear around with you. I know not what you want to hear but I said it in the past.

 

[jlm]

by way of example, hopefully to make us all more aware...
had my trunk broken into at Pearl Harbor. parked in the official lot, about 50' from the attendant's booth. because of security, you can't bring any bags into the memorial. of course our next stop was the airport, so we had all our belongings. i did carry in my M8.

apparently thugs look at the parking lot with binoculars to see who locks stuff in their trunk. they got a suitcase and personal things, wife's jewelry, etc.

later the rental car agency told us "oh yeah, break-ins happens all over honolulu , don't leave anything in the car"

 

[f8orbust]

Lowlife scumbags. Good no one was hurt. My advice to anyone is keep a small GPS tracker in your bag. These are readily available for not much money (compared to the price of your gear), e.g. TrackR ($30 for one tag - but uses other users to triangulate, not true GPS) or just Google 'GPS Asset Tracking'. By the time the scrotes get to a place where they figure out what’s in your bag, hopefully the cops will be there. Best thing is to hide it in your bag inside something worth taking - e.g. a cheap portable hard drive case. By the time they can test it, hopefully the cops will be breaking down the door. N.B. Do not try and recover any gear yourself - there have been a number of incidents of folks trying to recover their stolen iPhones using tracking apps which have ended in tragedy.

 

[tsjanik]

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you Graham. Good that you have insurance, but this will still leave a bitter taste. My first slr (Spotmatic)and lenses were stolen from my VW bus by a smash and grab thief. I too had insurance and used the payment to get a Pentax LX and although it was certainly an upgrade, I still resent the SOB who stole my equipment.

Tom

 

[Egor]

Sorry to hear about this Graham. I hate thieves and stuff like this.
Glad you are alright. I don't go to San Francisco anymore, its sad cause I used to love it....
Insurance will probably pay out but its going to be a hassle and your trip is ruined...sucks.

I am interested in what insurance you have on camera gear like that, and more importantly, now that the chips are down, how they handle your claim.

Many of us have special insurance on our very expensive gear, but few can comment on how they pay out when needed (fortunately and un-fortunately). I spend a lot of time going over the policies and equipment lists with my agent, but I just don't know...
Will be interested to hear how that goes for you.

 

[jagsiva]

Awefull...hope you can get the insurance company sorted and off to shooting soon.

 

[6x6]

I believe alpa maintains a list of stolen kit. It might be worth checking and getting all your serial numbers listed there. Alpa is so specialised that there is a greater chance that a future buyer identifies that it has been stolen. Fingers crossed.

 

[BJNY]

Graham,
A friend experienced similar recently in Emeryville.
Whereabouts were you photographing prior to parking?
Billy

 

[Smoothjazz]

I feel your pain, and a deep sense of injustice. I wish we had video everywhere, so bad guys would always be caught. I have some of the same Alpa gear you have. If it was taken, I think it is only insured for used value replacement. Do most people insure for full value?

 

[GrahamWelland]

Graham,
A friend experienced similar recently in Emeryville.
Whereabouts were you photographing prior to parking?
Billy

I wasn't shooting at all. Driving to the Bay Area for work and stopped at Chevy's restaurant on Powell St by the bay for dinner so parked in a well lit busy parking lot. Took out my laptop bag and brought that in with me but apparently the thieves were waiting in the parking lot. I changed my mind about eating there and came out and the security guy in the parking lot and I saw them grabbing a couple of bags off my folded down rear seat. Unfortunately one was my rucksack with the Alpa in it and another with the Sony. Also they got my dirty laundry from an overnight bag. The other bag with my actus db+ and MFDB were out of reach.

im very careful about where I park and never leave things in the car unattended if I can or out of sight. I took in what I could carry (laptop bag) but it's not practical to bring in everything.

in my case it was simply a case of an expensive car in what turns out to be a common targeted car theft location. They wait for a mark and then strike and drive off for the freeway immediately. The security guy and I were almost hit by the white Escalade gunning it out of the parking lot. I wasn't targeted as a photographer and they would have not known what they were getting in the bags they grabbed when they broke the side window. I guess they knew there was something because I took out my laptop bag and cover the rear folded down seat with a jacket.

 

[jlm]

what is also pissy about this is that those thieves have no idea what they got, and if they did, they would have realized the re-sale market is practically zero for hot alpas. which means all that beautiful gear will get dumped