Stolen memory cards - WEDDING DAY

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CamW

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Just to warn everyone - yesterday at Mere Court Hotel near Knutsford I had two camera bags stolen from the locked boot of my car during a wedding job!

When the wedding guests had sat down to eat at the reception, I went out to the car, put my bag in the boot, ate my picnic in the car, sorted through my kit to leave everything I didnt need for the rest of the evening in my car boot (including the full memory cards from almost 7 hours of shooting!!), locked the car and went back into the hotel to put used batteries on charge.

Came out to the car again once batteries fully charged to put the chargers away and my two lowepro camera bags had vanished from my boot. Around £2500 worth of kit gone plus all the memory cards! Some little s*** must have been on the car park, watched me, then bust open my front door lock with a screwdriver to open the boot. The car alarms would have gone off so I think they just grabbed the two bags and left quickly. Shockingly they ignored my wallet, sat nav, £100 worth of riding hats and a case of battery chargers, all of which were in the boot too alongside the camera bags. Nothing was on display in the car to identify it being the photographers car, so I was clearly being watched.

The hotel were very good and broke the news to the (very understanding) Bride & Groom, we reshot the groups again after the puddings, then after the speeches they set up the room again for a staged civil ceremony to be reshot (although the lighting was not good by this time).

I had the forensics police out who fingerprinted my car, fingerprinted me & the hotel manager who came out. They had CCTV cameras on the car park but it "wasnt working". The car park at Mere Court is separated from the hotel by a large garden and drop-off driveway, so nobody heard the car alarm.

Anyway, wedding photographers be warned - anything you think you are leaving secure in your locked car boot, actually isnt secure and watch out as maybe we will all become a growing target.

I am posting this on the forum also in the hope that one of you may come across five Sandisk memory cards for sale (four 4Gb, one 8Gb), two Lowepro bags (mini trekker AW black plus toploader 55AW black), a sigma 105mm macro f2.8 EX DG lens, a sigma 15-30mm f3.5 lens, a Canon EOS 400d with 24-105mm L IS f4 lens (no I dont use this one for weddings, it is my fourth back-up kit that has never been used) and lots of other smaller pieces of kit (Canon batteries, battery grip, speedlite 580 EX, amongst other bits).

Anyone hear of anything please let me know!
 
sorry to hear this :thumbsdown:

If you put the serial codes up for each item then you might have some luck if someone comes across them.
 
Bad luck mate, bloody theiving scum.

At leat the bride and groom go some pics of their day, the important ones anyways, it makes me sick thinking they are going to sell the kit for pittance to buy drugs/fags blah blah blah, you know what i mean.

spike
 
Welcome to the Forum Cam...sorry it had to be under such circumstances...
Not an option for all of us, but this is just another reason for an assistant/2nd shooter on jobs like this - to watch the kit.
Most Hotels have a secure storage space adjacent to reception (not the cloakroom, which is generally unattended). Another option might be to ask one of the wedding-guests if they mind offering use of their room as a secure 'drop' for the camera-kit, though I appreciate this might not be possible on the day - it would have to be arranged during the Prep discussions.
 
Thanks everyone. Good idea re. bags in one of the guests room in theory, although I dont think the insurance would cover the kit being left unattended in a (locked) guest room that was accessible by hotel staff?

It's a nightmare really. As a wedding photographer you need a back-up kit on stand-by just in case of a problem plus several lenses which you cant possibly have on your back the whole day. I just assumed in a locked & alarmed car boot out of sight, in a car park that appears to have CCTV, is safe.

The serial numbers I need to dig out from a mountain of paperwork, now I wish I was more organised in filing things!
 
Not really much of a consolation but at least you were able to do re-hoots, imagine if you'd not gone back to your car and hadn't been able to do that, hope you've got good insurance cover.
 
a good reason to always keep at least the memory cards on your person.. kit is replacable some of the shots arent.

its always surprising how many cctv cameras dont work when you need them to.

id check your insurance but most cover you if the kit is in a locked room.
 
Arkady said:
Welcome to the Forum Cam...sorry it had to be under such circumstances...
Not an option for all of us, but this is just another reason for an assistant/2nd shooter on jobs like this - to watch the kit.
Most Hotels have a secure storage space adjacent to reception
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Same from me Cam, sorry to hear of your problem at Knutsford.

I never let the cards leave my side. I have a waist belt that I can pop them in so they never leave me, they go in a waterproof snap case so I can't really protect them much more. The kit is insured and can be replaced but the pics can't.

Agree with Rob about the second shooter, I have stood guard a few times over two sets of kit and when shooting solo I have used reception to look after the rolling case for me.

I know Colin (Hacker) actually had a camera pinched from a venue last year so you really do have to watch your gear.
 
Thanks, I will check with insurance about locked rooms, etc in hotels and get their advice on this. I have full P.I. (+PL) and equipment insurance.

The cards will never be leaving my side ever again! Hard lesson learned.

The second shooter is a luxury to have but for me means having to charge more and since the market is so saturated with wedding photographers I have to keep costs down as much as possible. I have had bad experiences previously with photography students wanting work experience so I dont take these on any more. Whenever I have a huge wedding though (180 guests +) then I do look for a trusted second shooter.
 
Welcome to the forum Cam, sorry it has to be in such circumstances though :(
 
Sorry to hear the bad news :(

As I am looking at starting up professionally security is a key thing for me. I would probably look at getting a nice clean 4x4 for business use and then I am going to bolt and weld a secure box in the boot with some decent guaranteed locks on it. Should make it a little harder for the thieving scrotes!
 
that sucks dude....hope you get it sorted...take you have informed ebay too? give them serial nos as well...best of luck
 
Thanks everyone. I love the idea of bolting and welding in a secure box. Maybe even a guard dog too would be good. Anything to keep things secure in the future.

Alison that sounds great, thanks. I will keep your details to hand.

The story is now going in The Sun on Monday. I took a wild guess at the type of paper the culprits are likely to read and rang them. They have followed it up with the Bride & Groom and are going over to meet them tomorrow.
 
commiserations cam guess this has to be a wedding photographers worst nightmare but at least you managed to get some shots
 
It may be just bad luck that the scum targetted this particular car park, or maybe it's a regular thing at that venue. Some tea leaves see hotels as a good source of pickings.
Worth checking at reception to stop it happening to others.

I also keep cards on my person and kit under my nose as I've heard too many times over the years of kit getting stolen at venues.
Great that you got cooperation from everyone for the retakes and best of luck in tracking the rest of your kit down.
 
CamW said:
The story is now going in The Sun on Monday. I took a wild guess at *** *** ** ***** *** ******** *** ****** ** **** *** **** ****. They have followed it up with the Bride & Groom and are going over to meet them tomorrow.
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I think you've somehow dropped an inference in there (**** *** etc) that may lead an editor to be less than sympathtic to your cause.....it's probably worthwhile ditching that line from your post. ;)

Bob
 
once you have the serial numbers add them to the Police report

but also check out the local pawn shops and For Sale newspapers

they generally turn this stuff over pretty quick

Good Luck in the future !
 
Tough luck there bud :(

I'm with Ali though, I too have a snap-case that stays in my pocket the whole day so the unused/used cards are never off my person

That said - nor is my kit ever out of my sight either, and most of the time it's on my back - I trust no-one !!!

DD
 
Sorry to hear about the loss. It really sucks.

Its cold comfort, but for what its worth (as others have suggested), Anything except big stuff like lights etc. goes into locked Pelicases in the boot that are then also locked to the inside body of the boot itself. I've had the car broken into a couple of time now (because of the areas I work in and the nature of the work) but never had any gear in the cases nicked. (so far).

Doesn't change anything for the OP now but maybe it will help someone in the future.
 
The missing kit details as follows. Anyone come across anything like this on a suspicious sale, please contact me -

Canon EOS 400d – 1330843548 (with or without the battery grip still attached and a manfrotto tripod adaptor plate)
Canon 24-105mm IS L f4 EF lens – 482573
Canon speedlite flashgun 580Ex – 030687 (plus case. There is a small circular sticker on the rear of this flashgun)
Sigma wide-angle zoom lens 15-30mm f3.5 - 1027396
Sigma 105mm macro lens EX DG – still searching for serial no. but the metallic label near to the serial no. on the lens is peeling a little.
Lowepro mini trekker AW in black
Lowepro Toploader Zoom 55AW black with slip-lock pouch attached
Sandisk Extreme III 4Gb memory cards (with images on) x 4
Sandisk Extreme III 8Gb memory card (full of data) x 1
Canon 400d battery grip (was attached to camera body)
Manfrotto tripod adaptor plate (was attached to 400d battery grip)
Canon 400d batteries BP-2LH x2
Manuals – for the 400d, 580ex, 5d & 5dmkII
Rechargeable AA batteries Ni-Mh (7dayshop written across them) x4
Lens caps x2 E-77U
Rear lens + body cap cover for EF lens/ EOS
Canon 5d battery Li-ion BP-511A
Canon 5d mkII battery LP-E6
 
The serial no. of the Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro lens stolen is 2020792.
 
Ouch, I hope you have good insurance (not just gear coverage, but liability/indemnity insurance - bridezillas can be nasty in court with things like this).

Good luck catching the *******s, or at least getting some of your gear back.

Oh, and definitely a vote here on having an assistant or second shooter. I had 2 assistants with me yesterday watching lights and bags at an event I shot.
 
Thanks John, yes I have full cover (PL/PI/ eqpt) luckily.

Does anyone know how to use flickr to show up if the camera is used on there? I found an American website that claim to show if any images have been posted using the equipment with the serial number of the camera however to register, it redirects me to sign in giving my google password, which I find a little dodgy so avoiding that one.
 
Thieving scum!!! Maybe they deserve a bit of this...:bat:
 
CamW said:
Thanks John, yes I have full cover (PL/PI/ eqpt) luckily.
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Not luck, just proper forethought and planning on your part! :thumbs:

CamW said:
Does anyone know how to use flickr to show up if the camera is used on there?
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Yes and no. It depends on your body. Some bodies (like my D300s) will embed the serial number of the camera into the image. Other bodies (like my D200) don't. So, if your body embeds the serial number into the EXIF info, then theoretically yes this could help you be able to find them if they uploaded images to the web. I may be wrong, but I'm not aware of any bodies that save the serial number of the lens used though.

However, I don't believe Flickr makes this information public when you go to "more properties" on an image - and Flickr also rips out the EXIF info from any images other than "Original Size" (which aren't always available - I don't make my original size uploads available on my Flickr account).

CamW said:
I found an American website that claim to show if any images have been posted using the equipment with the serial number of the camera however to register, it redirects me to sign in giving my google password, which I find a little dodgy so avoiding that one.
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It is possible that a 3rd party site could examine new images uploaded to flickr and elsewhere (indexing them the same way search engines do really, like Tineye) to extract serial numbers, but why they would need your passwords for any site is beyond me.
 
Oh no!! The article hasnt appeared in todays edition of The Sun. Apparently it "didnt make today's edition but will be put forward for tomorrows". Manchester Evening News are now interested in running the story but shockingly Liverpool Echo wont cover it because they "dont think someone from Liverpool would go to the Knutsford area its far more likely to be someone from Greater Manchester" - what!? The M6 is 5 mins away from the venue, 40 mins away from Liverpool city centre and 30 mins away from Manchester city centre. Anyway, lets see what happens........
 
Heard some "paps" had a load of stuff nicked at the VE event here in London. Same thing. Thieves spotted what cars they came in and hit a few.
 
sorry to hear about your gear mate. how about something like this Bag Protector chained to a safe 'achor' point in your car. Its not 100% secure, but would act as a good deterrent to the hit and run type of theif.
 
Or a medium sized tool safe chest that can be bolted to the floor (many have these for guns etc) Ok its a bit heavy etc, but would really cause issues for anyone doing a quick smash and grab.
 
Bag protector Pac Safe looks quite good, going to check it out further, thanks
 
CamW said:
Bag protector Pac Safe looks quite good, going to check it out further, thanks
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I'm going to get the PacSafe 85 as I carry my gear in a lowepro computrekker, so the 85 one looks big enough I reckon.

I also use one of these Lowepro DMC-V that loops through my belt and holds 8 CF cards that will never fall out. So the memory cards are never away from my person as a full memory card is impossible to insure.
 
You could register all this gear on http://www.immobilise.com/

It is checked by Police when suspected stolen equipment comes into their possession, so if they nick someone you stand a better chance of getting it back.
 
Sorry to hear about this, you have to feel for everyone here. Hope you get it sorted out.
 
Thanks all, I've listed it all on immobilise.com now. Still waiting to hear back from the police though in their follow-up call. Dont really have high expectations on that one though. Will see what happens though......
 
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