Stolen Gear...am I overreacting?

Ok, so I just got home from a 46 hour work day. I have done a load out, a load in, and a lot of work on our new space. The load out went great. Super fast, and I had a prison crew to help. Everything got packed, downstairs, and loaded into the truck in about an hour. Granted, cables weren't coiled correctly, and most everything got packed in the wrong box, but I was going straight to another venue to load out the exact same rig for a different show. Keep in mind, this was a small rig. By small, I mean 3 4 channel dimmers, 8 Par 56s, 4 Source 4s, 6 K9 Pups, and my booth equipment. This was Friday morning. We arrived at the next venue, a local high school, to load out the rig and set it up for another show. Here's where things started to get hairy...

Because of the improper packing at the load out, my computers ended up riding in the back seat of my truck. No biggie. While we were on site, one of my techs left the truck unlocked and someone stole my second monitor. The tech felt really bad about it and asked me to take the cost of a new monitor out of his check. I'm not going to do that as he is one of my best guys and accidents happen.

From this point forward, loading in was simple. Trees went up, cables were run, and lights focused. Next was patching and programming in ChamSys. We had to leave the venue for a few hours as there was a class being held in the space. Great opportunity to grab lunch. We covered the booth with a black sheet when we left, just to ward off wandering hands. BIG MISTAKE. When we got back, EVERY cord had been unplugged from the back of the computer and someone walked off with my wireless Apple keyboard. I'm INFURIATED!!

This show is for a non-profit, so the company is doing it at no cost, like always, but now I have to replace several hundred dollars of equipment. I run a small business. Even $100 is a lot of money to us right now.

Am I overreacting? After all, it's just a monitor and keyboard. On the other hand, they are vital parts of my setup that has now been pushed back a day because I need to get new equipment tomorrow. (Easter Sunday...this should be fun)

How would you react? I can tell you, this show hasn't been the greatest of experiences since the beginning and I will probably never work at this school again.

Assuming this was a K-12 school, I would have immediately reported the keyboard to school officials. They typically have the right to search students belongings, and a keyboard is not that easy to hide (a going into the ball game type bag search would find it). The stolen monitor also sounds like it could be a kid.

Monitors are cheap. So are keyboards. Embrace this as a teachable moment and be relieved nothing of real value was taken (i.e. something that, without it, would cripple or kill your business), especially nothing that is irreplaceable.

It sucks, it really does, but it's a scuff on your shoe compared to some of the theft that happens in our industry. Some thieves will go so far as to boost entire tractor trailers with hundreds of thousands of dollars (millions?) of equipment on-board.

I learned this lesson with some of my tools early on, I was lucky that I was some c wrenches and a couple other things that added up to a bit less than 100. I was a college student then. Now I don't leave my stuff unattended in outside spaces and if I have to I find a place to lock up all the important bits. All my stuff is labeled with initials or some kind of identifying mark because I'm still poor and paranoid, but I haven't had anything else go walking since then. So I guess it has paid off (knock on wood). I agree that if this is a school they should be made aware and some searches could be made. Even if you can't buy new ones tomorrow there are plenty of places you could borrow a monitor and keyboard to get you through the gig.


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Thanks for the responses everyone! After posting yesterday, I went to bed and slept a good 13 hours. Grabbed a new keyboard and monitor on my way to the job. (Thank God for Walmart)
Got everything squared away and started tech rehearsals for opening night on Thursday. Definitely a teaching moment for me!

The monitor got stolen out of an unlocked vehicle. Lame, but it happens.

However, in my opinion, the school should be responsible for replacing your keyboard. Unless there's something in a rental contract that says otherwise, when you had to leave because they had a class going on in the space, they should have immediately become responsible for your stuff. I would have offered to pay for it if you were in my theater.

Honestly, Take this lesson from this, anytime your equipment is in an unlocked space whether that be the shop, the venue, or the truck; There must be someone with the equipment at all times. They only times that person can walk away is when they are: relieved, emergency (fire, tornado, natural disaster or something similar), or that space is locked. As the owner sometimes that means skipping your lunch or having someone else bring you back something. Its just the nature of the business. I've walked away once from my equipment while it was in an unlocked space, I had a venue guy watch my stuff. Otherwise If its my equipment its in my sight. Granted if I did a dry rental the contract states any replacement or repair costs are solely the responsibility of the rentee. Even if its a non profit or pro bono, If it gets lost, stolen, or broken you replace it.

Working in this industry, you are going to work with thieves and drug addicts. I like to think that people are generally good, but I don't trust ANYONE I don't know; not teachers, not police, not ministers or nuns. I've have been Robbed or stolen from on 4 occasion in the past few years, by a CHRISTIAN rock band, stagehand, two Gang-banger, and a POLICE OFFICER. Now if for example, you have overnight security, and the guard falls asleep on the stage, and all of your microphones walk away; then the security company should pay you for the loss.

People steal, stagehands break things, you forget stuff and have to go buy something to make a show happen. This is part of the cost of doing business.

If you are unsure of a situation, require you client to provide security in your contract.

To add, an insurance policy that covers your equipment isn't a bad idea either. That is, if the equipment you travel with is valuable enough that you'd ever exceed the deductible if some of it walked off.

Timothy A. Samuelson said:

Ok, so I just got home from a 46 hour work day. I have done a load out, a load in, and a lot of work on our new space. The load out went great. Super fast, and I had a prison crew to help. Everything got packed, downstairs, and loaded into the truck in about an hour. Granted, cables weren't coiled correctly, and most everything got packed in the wrong box, but I was going straight to another venue to load out the exact same rig for a different show. Keep in mind, this was a small rig. By small, I mean 3 4 channel dimmers, 8 Par 56s, 4 Source 4s, 6 K9 Pups, and my booth equipment. This was Friday morning. We arrived at the next venue, a local high school, to load out the rig and set it up for another show. Here's where things started to get hairy...

Because of the improper packing at the load out, my computers ended up riding in the back seat of my truck. No biggie. While we were on site, one of my techs left the truck unlocked and someone stole my second monitor. The tech felt really bad about it and asked me to take the cost of a new monitor out of his check. I'm not going to do that as he is one of my best guys and accidents happen.

From this point forward, loading in was simple. Trees went up, cables were run, and lights focused. Next was patching and programming in ChamSys. We had to leave the venue for a few hours as there was a class being held in the space. Great opportunity to grab lunch. We covered the booth with a black sheet when we left, just to ward off wandering hands. BIG MISTAKE. When we got back, EVERY cord had been unplugged from the back of the computer and someone walked off with my wireless Apple keyboard. I'm INFURIATED!!

This show is for a non-profit, so the company is doing it at no cost, like always, but now I have to replace several hundred dollars of equipment. I run a small business. Even $100 is a lot of money to us right now.

Am I overreacting? After all, it's just a monitor and keyboard. On the other hand, they are vital parts of my setup that has now been pushed back a day because I need to get new equipment tomorrow. (Easter Sunday...this should be fun)

How would you react? I can tell you, this show hasn't been the greatest of experiences since the beginning and I will probably never work at this school again.

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Iv been raised to think that if someone is stealing something from you that you worked and paid for, they dont deserve your respect (depending on the situation) but in this case it was high schoolers. No you're not over reacting, cuz if you dont freak out now itll be more then a keyboard and monitor

Wait.

A 46-hour *work day*?

8am Monday to 6am Wednesday, continuous??

Wait.

This caper unfolded 5 1/2 years ago and remains unsolved?!

The thread MUST continue until justice is served.

Zombie thread.

I'm thinking about calling the police... but really what's the rush. Maybe if we wait another 5 years the guy will just give it back.

gafftaper said:

I'm thinking about calling the police... but really what's the rush. Maybe if we wait another 5 years the guy will just give it back.

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Facial recognition will be the new DNA. Give it a few years and we could see a surge of cold cases getting solved by algorithms scouring grainy traffic and security cam footage from years priors as every movement any person makes is reverse engineered to determine where they were at any particular point in time in the last 15 years.