Write down those serial numbers, tag those bags

Roger Hicks said:
You have a touching faith in insurers. Even if you are fully insured for replacement value, I'd not trust them.

Cheers,

R.
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I had my camera bag with 2 ZI bodies, 2 ZM lenses and a Hexanon lens, plus a GF-1, 20mm & 14mm lenses stolen in Cuba 12 days ago. The Cuban policia have a positive ID on the perp but have done nothing. No one ever asked for serial numbers.

I learned that my homeowners insurance does not cover any losses outside the US.

edit: my bag had tags with complete info as well as about 60 business cards inside. I hope the thief is not posing as me now.
 
I like the business card idea.......all I need now are business cards....or some kind of name card written in Thai/English or whatever country I am living in with an explanation that I will reward you if you return my cameras.......I never hope I am in this situation, but it is something good/valuable that I have learned from reading this thread.......I hope you get your gear back mate....

cheers, michael
 
Wow, sorry for everyone with losses. I have been lucky so far. I did leave a computer bag with my netbook and external DVD in a conference room being used as a lunch room a couple of years ago. I was five minutes gone when I realized what was nagging at me. Amazingly when I got back, it was still sitting there. I have tried to be more careful since then. I guess I should write down all my serial numbers, but don't really have time for all that. I will regret it if I lose them or they are stolen.
 
Well, I got stupidly lucky.

Despite both me and the staff their searching the place yesterday without any success, they called me to say that it had reappeared there this morning. I didn't ask too many questions about where they found it - I was just happy to have it back.

I'd spent most of Sunday trying to accept that it was probably gone for good so the recovery was really a shock.

Lesson learned. I'll be getting contact info in the bag as soon as I get home. And I'll be logging info/taking pictures of anything before taking it out of the house again.
 
I did EXACTLY the same thing thirty years ago. Driving back top Dallas/Fort Worth after two glorious weeks in Taos, We stopped at a restaurant somewhere in New Mexico or Texas for lunch, and I didn't realize til we got home that I'd left the bag with all the Pentax gear, two bodies and five primes in the restaurant. I'm still sick about the loss of all those Kodachrome pictures of my family on that vacation! Cameras are just things. Pictures are memories! Sorry it happened to you.
 
Yes, you were lucky, and while the event no doubt caused you a lot of grief, posting it here will cause many of us to take some precautions to try to avoid a similar situation. So, thanks for posting:)
 
Custom made label stickers, of the type you buy to tag your kids stuff. I have it on a couple of cameras, green, high visibility, with name and phone number + a unicorn.
 
I'm mighty glad the story ended well!

And, speaking of things, I did talk to my insurance company a long time ago, when I started going abroad with students. My gear is insured, as long as I show them a police report about its theft. In other words, if I lost it, it's gone. If it's stolen... I may collect up to $2000 a piece. They also have a printout of my list of gear, including brand, type, SN and other little things.

However, after reading this thread I'll be even more in the lookout. Some years ago I nearly left my Canonet in a restaurant in NY. What I do now is place my camera bag by my feet and loop the strap around my leg. That way I will sense it when I get up, and will also feel if someone tries to pull it. The only drawback: one time I moved my leg and down came the camera from the chair (it was my D700, on its third day of ownership). Apart from a broken lens hood, there were no ill effects, but that's why I put my gear on the floor.

Again, I'm really glad your bag was returned to you! :)
 
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I'm glad to see there's a happy ending on this. Luckily, I've never left anything valuable anywhere - yet! My nearest was putting a camera on the carrier-rack of a motorcycle then forgetting I'd left it there. I rode about 50 miles over bumpy roads and on arrival it was still there, though heaven knows how!

I share the scepticism of insurance companies. Like any company, they have only one goal - profit. That entails maximising premiums and minimising payouts; common sense tells you they will not pay up without a fight. A friend recently got relieved of his mobile (cell) phone by a pickpocket. The insurance company would not pay out without a crime reference number from the police. The police would not issue one because there was no proof his phone had been stolen. A colleague left his phone in the pub - he wasn't overly concerned because "it's insured". The insurance specifically excluded loss in a pub or on public transport - and he'd admitted where it had been lost.

My motorcycle insurance rose 25% last renewal so I demanded to know the justification, at a time when there's a recession and people are fighting for business etc. I was told "there's more fraud during a recession". Their answer is to jack premiums up to cover it, not DO something to counteract! When the recession ends, what's the likelihood of premiums falling? NIL! They'll go up again with the justification that people are better off, prices are rising and so on.

Call me a cynic but in my view, insurance=scam. Better to take best care of not losing stuff and protecting it than rely on insurance.

EDIT: Oops! Rant over...
 
wolves3012 said:
My motorcycle insurance rose 25% last renewal so I demanded to know the justification, at a time when there's a recession and people are fighting for business etc. I was told "there's more fraud during a recession". .
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You should have replied, "I can see that from the size of the increase in the premium. Or are you saying that the people you pretend to insure are committing fraud too?"

For an all-time disgusting insurance story, consider the following. Just after I arrived in California, I insured my cameras with Allstate. When I went to renew the insurance a year later, they said, "No, we can't renew it." Understandably, I asked them why not, and they said, "We don't offer that sort of insurance, and the person who sold it to you wasn't authorized to sell it."

Further discussion elucidated the fact that if I'd made a claim during the year (I didn't) they wouldn't have paid out. But they saw no inconsistency in keeping my money and neither insuring me, nor telling me I wasn't insured. Nor would they give the money back, because the insurance period was over...

I've never insured anything with Allstate since.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
You should have replied, "I can see that from the size of the increase in the premium. Or are you saying that the people you pretend to insure are committing fraud too?"
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I suspect that the subtlety of that remark would have been lost on them. What grieved me most that their premium was still cheaper enough that I couldn't do what I wanted, which was to point out they'd lost my business due to the extortionate rise and then go insure elsewhere.
Roger Hicks said:
For an all-time disgusting insurance story, consider the following. Just after I arrived in California, I insured my cameras with Allstate. When I went to renew the insurance a year later, they said, "No, we can't renew it." Understandably, I asked them why not, and they said, "We don't offer that sort of insurance, and the person who sold it to you wasn't authorized to sell it."

Further discussion elucidated the fact that if I'd made a claim during the year (I didn't) they wouldn't have paid out. But they saw no inconsistency in keeping my money and neither insuring me, nor telling me I wasn't insured. Nor would they give the money back, because the insurance period was over...

I've never insured anything with Allstate since.

Cheers,

R.
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What a shame you're not in the UK. You'd be able to fall victim to one of the companies that now cold-call, offering to reclaim thousands for mis-sold insurance.
 
Another good (and lucky) outcome: My wife and I were in Berlin when Berlin was divided. We had transit visas for E. European countries and rail tickets for E. Berlin to Budapest. My wife left her bag, with passport, camera, etc. on a seat in the W. Berlin S-Bahn. We went to the little train workers' office on the platform and they began to phone down the route to see someone could find the bag but, after a half-hour or so, they sadly reported that the bag must be gone. My wife and I began to leave the station but one of the workers ran after us to say that the bag was found and turned in to the station several stops distant, at the end of the line. It turned out that a woman had seen the bag when she began to leave the train and took it, planning to turn it in to the police. However, when she started to walk home from the train, she realized that she should turn the bag in to the station office, and returned to the station. She didn't leave her name but I wish she had so that we could thank her properly. The bag was complete, nothing was missing!

Of course, there are bad things that happen too, but when we are most disappointed in our fellow humans, it is good to remember that there are many helpful, honest folks out there too.
 
Good to read this

Good to read this

Good to know there are still good people out there. Actually it's VERY good to hear endings like this !

Someone should write a sci-fi novel, not with zombies or vampires, but with only a small population of decent people left on Earth . . . the rest having sold out to greed, bad behaviour and thievery. Plot material is all around us.

I am reminded of the 1947 (?) movie The Bicycle Thief.

Apologies for the philosophy, but I was very glad to read you got your gear back.
 
Certain companies are much better than others, Allstate is notorious for being hard to collect from, even when it involves their own executives in their Zone office parking.

I believe in general you want to stick with the folks who insure your home, and use an Inland Marine Policy- though the only claims I have had were from damage, it covers everything baring an act of war.

Get a Good agent, and as they charge according to what you value, the big thing is to make a police report, to verify things were lost, it is a crime to file a false report, and then proceed as best as possible. Insurance companies do guard against fraud.

I too left my Leica CL, 28mm, 40mm, couple of Nikon SLR's, new gold watch for my mother, traveler's checks, passport -- well it was a Domke, at a restaurant in Italy, the waiter had pushed it under the table cloth and I just walked out.

When I finally tracked it down the next day, everything was in the bag hanging in the cloak room, and I handed the guy $20 for watching over it.

OTOH, a friend recently found a camera at Lowes, turned it in, and the person he gave it to never logged it in.

A friend found an M3 outfit in an airport, left his card with Lost and Found, and no one ever called, so he was honest, and he also ended up with an M3 w/ lens.

Fingers crossed for next time, and double good luck, glad you got your stuff back, when traveling it is amazing how much you might stick in a camera bag, I carry less now.

I have heard good stories about people returning stuff, I have done it.

Regards, John
 
If I have a lot of cash, I fan the bills out, photograph them with a P&S, -- if someone steals your money, is caught with it, you can reclaim, otherwise, it goes in to a different fund.

There are lots of things you can document with good cell phone cameras, and email to yourself, for when they steal the cell phone. ;-)

Roger, you do know the root of the word Travel?

John
 
That is awesome news Brian. Your karma points are all out now, best do a kindness

"can you do me a kindness..."
 
I too wrap the strap around my leg whenever sitting down in a restaurant etc. That way I am reminded about the bag when I get up. And it keeps someone from grabbing it.
 
Allstate is my insurer. In 2006 we had sewage backup. then I had a couple of incidents with the car... in both cases they paid out top money within the week. I spoke to the lady who represents them here in town and she told me my gear was covered by my home insurance even when traveling abroad, as long as I could produce a police report. I have to update my information with them... It's a lot more than it was a few years ago.

I don't doubt there are some shady operators out there... but it's usually the ops. At least, that's been my experience.

Keep those bags safe! :)
 
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