Nab Crooks

[Jarred Land]

http://www.audiovideoproducer.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=43031

Wow.. most of us heard alot of stuff, and this is just reported thiefs.

Poor Abel :(

[Jeremy Ordan]

I had a G2 wireless stolen a couple of weeks ago along with a mixer and a bunch of cables... I hate people who steal.

-Jeremy

[jrv3034]

A Varicam... ouch! I don't understand criminals. Karma can be quite nasty...

[TimurCivan]

bastards....

but what do you do with a stolen cam? sell it outside the US? cause as soon as it needs servivicing and they check your serial no., your number is up. (no pun intended)

[oneinfiniteloop]

Can they take any action against NAB itself, or do they sign something saying they understand the risks?

[SilverWolf]

Can they take any action against NAB itself, or do they sign something saying they understand the risks?

I think that's going to be hard because it doesn't appear as though NAB was being negligent in their security

[FilmMakerr]

People who want something so bad, dont have the money for it, steal it.

[The Sarlacc]

Film cameras, lens, etc used to get stolen all the time...You just keep the serials numbers handy, and sooner or later they pop up on E-Bay or somewhere.

Shame it happened. How do you manage to just walk away with a giant box...

[Chrismas]

Steeling from a big company is bad, but who steels from a small event videographer, deserves the death penalty.
It happened to 3 of my fellow videographers last year, in well known reception halls in NY. Now i take my cam with me in the toilets. What a wonderfull world.

[The Sarlacc]

People are becoming more and more savvy on what this stuff costs.

I have and will never disclose prices to strangers on set or location.

People always come up and ask how much something costs or is worth...whether its out of genuine interest or ulterior motives. I always side step the questions, or say it's not cheap. I never give them numbers.

[J.R. Hudson]

NAB actually spent more than $350,000 on security this year, hiring 1,100 guards, says spokesman Dennis Wharton. While the dollar value of the items stolen this year is significant, Wharton concedes, the 17 thefts this year are down from 19 in 2005 and 31 in 2004.

Maybe Sin City isn't the best place to hold the convention ? Of course, if it wasn't in Vegas, most people probably would not go.

[TimurCivan]

John, get him!

[imgentertainment@mac]

That is just crap. If this keeps going on more and more dealers are just going to put stuff behind glass.

[GaryinCalifornia]

Okay how do you walk out of NAB with with a Varicam... and HD Camera... lens I guess in a plastic bag... but a camera... has to be done by someone inside or someone who works at the location...

Who knows maybe they're were a lot of fat people leaving who came in skinny...

[Sirius_Doggy]

It really doesn't matter how much money they spend as long as they continue to spend it on the worthless people they use. As a Vegas IATSE stagehand who worked 10 days on NAB this year, in the Grass Valley booth, I saw plenty of shady looking people carrying equipment in and out during the setup and strike days of the show. Security is a joke. It is the responsibility of each vendor to watch their own equipment, especially during setup and strike days. I know for a fact that GV had 8 people (undercover - plain clothes) watching the perimeters of it's booth. I was stopped and questioned by them on several occasions even after working in the booth for several days. When you consider the amount of gear just the GV booth had, paying those extra 8 people was a drop in the bucket. We (IATSE) hung 57 - 42" plasmas, 15 - 50" plasmas, 8 - 65" plasmas, installed 84 desktop computers, most with 19" flat panels and about 30 GV Turbo's. And that was just the AV part. That doesn't include the millions of dollars worth of GV cameras and switchers they installed.

And John - it doesn't just happen in Sin City. The GV folks told me they prefer Vegas over McCormick Place in Chicago and Javits in NYC.

[kimko]

People who want something so bad, dont have the money for it, steal it.then there are people (like us) who work hard even stuff we hate doing to pay for things we want in life.

[rook]

It would have been remarkably easy to steal from NAB. I'm really surprised more didn't disappear.

-rook

[jonestown]

GPS GPS GPS , if cell phones and cars why not cams?

mark your beast.

[kimko]

It would have been remarkably easy to steal from NAB. I'm really surprised more didn't disappear.

-rookvee must keep an eye unt you

[menchifus]

There is an easy solution to this. Every piece of equipment that goes in through the doors will be labeled with a "serial number". The booth operator will be given a card with that number on it. The only way that equipment is going out the doors is with the accompanying card. Problem solved.

They do the same type of security in airports. Check-in baggages have a tag and you must have the claim slip. Now just put security at each door at NAB and no one walks out with a $50,000 camera.

[sink]

I think a lot of the theft isnt people picking up a camera on display in front of staff and visitors and walking out a door, its someone grabbing a box sitting on a loading dock with a bunch of guys moving stuff around. There is a COPS episode in Las Vegas where they catch a guy that was trying to sell a betacam deck. the cop says something like "there's a big electronics convention every year and guys show up and unload"

[The Sarlacc]

There is an easy solution to this. Every piece of equipment that goes in through the doors will be labeled with a "serial number". The booth operator will be given a card with that number on it. The only way that equipment is going out the doors is with the accompanying card. Problem solved.

They do the same type of security in airports. Check-in baggages have a tag and you must have the claim slip. Now just put security at each door at NAB and no one walks out with a $50,000 camera.


Yeah they do this at LAX.....The have only had security people there to check maybe twice in the 4 years I have been flying in and out of there...

[akuepper]

Yeah, security appears lax at Nab. CES as well. I've been inside after hours with NO credentials walking around booths with tons of goodies out. Every now and then I see a bored, half-asleep security guard. NAB spends $350k a year on security- but that doesn't mean anything when your security guard works part time at McDonalds, and has the skill range of a burger flipper...

[ecarr]

i hate people who steal stuff. go work your ass off, like i did...

if you can put a gps tracker in a pet dog, maybe you could put one in a camera?

doesn't keep it from being stolen, but you'd know where to find it...

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

good idea ecarr

wow ... sounds almost like a free for all at NAB, stuff going left and right and companies chasing people down themselves!

[ericed]

one would think at a conference all about cameras and stuff, someone would have thought to, i dont know, set up security cameras. i certainly wouldnt bring my $50,000 cameras to a place that didnt even have secruity cameras. and if they have them in the conference center and not at the loading docks, you would think someone with half a brain that puts money into cameras worth more than some people's cars would question why, after every year there are almost 20 thefts and not one moron thought of installing security cameras around the loading and unloading zone.

im going to NAB next year and for my booth, there are going to be security monitors and i will set up a bunch of cameras on the ceiling and at the loading docks. i might not be able to stop evey theft but i bet i can catch a few and save some companies a lot of $$$. i mean, if they are willing to leave cameras unattended then i bet i could milk the companies out of a few grand in exchange for the footage i capture.

[eddavid]

Could this be the stolen Varicam?:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PANASONIC-AJ-HDC27VP-VARICAM-HDC27-HIGH-DEFINITION-NR_W0QQitemZ7622178513QQcategoryZ107937QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I mean, they are in Miami, probably the shadiest place in America.

[ecking]

If I was one of those theives I'd be too afriad to sell any of those cameras.

I'd probably just end up learning how to use them and then make a movie. lol

[Simon Wyndham]

A similar thing happened at the Video Forum in London earlier this year. One of the Sony HDCAM's was stolen, along with a Panasonic (can't remember which model, but something along the lines of an SDX900 or HDX400). The Panny was stolen from one of the dealer stands, although I believe the theives returned it (hell knows what they said when they brought it back!).

The Sony never returned.

I would imagine that it could actually be quite easy to steal, especially if it was an insider. There are so many people walking around the show floors actually using cameras that the thief, or most likely thieves, could blend in fairly well acting like they were actually a crew shooting something! I can't see any other way that these people could get the equipment through security at the front door.

[Guy_Cochran]

We've been exhibitors at NAB for the last couple of years and have always locked down the expensive gear with cables. Funny thing though, the last time I forgot to leave keys for the locks before flying out a day early and the team had to hunt down some bolt cutters at the end of the show. whoops!

And hey yankee, sorry to hear about your gear getting jacked bro... If it helps , I'll get you into another Sennheiser G2 system at cost.

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

Nice move hooking up Yank, Guy!

[cheezweezl]

I have a couple of nice HD cams for sale. Like new except for some minor scratches where the serial numbers usually are....

Will trade for weed or meth.... :)

[dat5150]

Why don't these booths have surveillance cameras? It might not be perfect, but I bet it scares a lot of thiefs away.

My first thought is eliminate the possibility that this is an inside job.

[The Sarlacc]

Why don't these booths have surveillance cameras? It might not be perfect, but I bet it scares a lot of thiefs away.

My first thought is eliminate the possibility that this is an inside job.

Probably too much effort for too little payoff.

I don't think the crooks are scared of the cameras, and they are such low quality actually pegging them and finding them is slim to none.

[The Sarlacc]

And hey yankee, sorry to hear about your gear getting jacked bro... If it helps , I'll get you into another Sennheiser G2 system at cost.

A very generous offer.

[Jeremy Ordan]

Hey Guy,

Thank you very much for the offer. It is very generous and beyond expected by any means. I certainly appreciate it and will contact you this week so we can discuss it.

The only problem with this is that you are tampering with my belief that in this world of criminals and theives that there are good hearted generous people out there. Thank you and I will PM ya.

-Jeremy

[Guy_Cochran]

Hey, I grew up in So cal and have had my share of losses...one of the biggest of memory being a 1st gen Nintendo 64 and a TV that I saved up for by pitchin' newspapers at 4am on a girls bike (praying none of my friends would see me)...geez, come to think about it...I was riding a girls bike cuz my cool bike got swiped too!
As I get older I realize its more about karma. They'll be plenty of tempting opportunities to do wrong in life, later you learn it's doing what's right that really counts.


-Guy

[FatBird19]

People who want something so bad, dont have the money for it, steal it.

Welcome to the CD pirating market. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

[Ernest_Acosta]

There is a market for stolen goods where that $8.00 an hour security guard gets an order for a camera. Gets in cahoots with the loading dock guy, get the merchandise and brings it to the person who will pay them off. Big cameras are not stolen from displays, more than likely its done at the laoding docks.

[scottdavis]

Why don't these booths have surveillance cameras? It might not be perfect, but I bet it scares a lot of thiefs away.

My first thought is eliminate the possibility that this is an inside job.

Inside job... you think?

If you can't get a good, quality surveillance camera at NAB for God's sake, where can you get one? I'm sure the folks with the NAB might be able to get at least ONE of the vendors to put up higher quality cameras for surveillance...

:kali:

[Paul Reichelt]

Where would these really expensive cameras even get used? I can't imagine someone dropped $60,000+ on a camera from the Gray Market?

[OregonDank]

Where would these really expensive cameras even get used? I can't imagine someone dropped $60,000+ on a camera from the Gray Market?

Mexico...

[Jarred Land]

yeah and there are a crapload of sketchy dealers in brooklyn....

http://donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores/

[Unix]

that sux ass
sorry Abel...