Gone in the blink of an eye

[Pirata]

I had my truck parked in the church parking lot Sunday while we were in church. Since my wife needed to pick up 6 people we had to take her Jeep ad my truck. When we got there I locked my truck and we all went inside.

During the service one of the members needed to get some soda out of the back of her Jeep. I gave them my keys which also contained my truck keys. About 10 minutes later they came back in and said they could not find the soda in my wife's Jeep so the looked in my truck and locked it back up. My wife went outside and gave them the soda from her jeep and grabbed my jacket from my truck. She is not sure that she locked my truck.

After the service ended we were packing the clan into 2 different vehicles and I noticed my camera bag was missing from behind the driver's seat. I can't say whether it was locked or not when I came back out as I used to remote start to warm the engine and unlocked with the other remote.

No one had seen the camera. Cops came and filed a report. I called Geico (car insurance) they told me if it's not bolted to my truck they would not cover it. They suggested to contact my home owner's insurance company and they would cover i. My homeowners will cover it minus the deductable, $1000. I rechecked, double checked and checked agan that they would cover my loss from the theft inside my truck that was parked 20 miles away from home and they said this was a normal run of the mill claim.

Since dollar for dollar what is missing is about $2500 in camera and camera gear I guess paying $1000 to replace this completely to the brim is not too bad.

The part I liked abut this is I am now able to upgrade my Sony A200 to an A350. Also a few things I had bougt which I did not like too much I don't have to buy again, such as an elcheapo 420 - 800 lens.

The 2 things that really ticked me off the most is that the camera bag was a brand new, less than 2 weeks old, my wife had bought me for my birthday on the 8th. The other thing, my camera had on it when it was stolen the pics of my birthday party, our anniversary pics and some city night shots I had taken from an executive suite at the Hilton in Va Beach. this past weekend while we were staying there for our annivesary.

I just got done placing the replacement order for all my stuff and I am looking about 2400 and change spend of which about $1400 will get reimbursed. Really strange past couple of days.


Another plus:
4 days bfore my birthday I accidentally pushed my couch through the back window of my truck. On my daughter's life if it took 10psi to break the glass I hit the glass with 10.000001psi when I hit it. I heard the breaking glass sound I thought that there is no way I could have broken the window with such little force but I did. Anyway I forked out $558 out of pocket as I did not know my insurance only made you pay a $50 deductable for window replacement. I called Geico today and they said they would reimburse me for the $558 minus $50 for this providing I sent them a receipt.

Cool beans, got that covered.


Guess things are starting to look brighter already. Most definately this is a better finicial time right now as I am collecting a full time active Army paycheck while I am on retirement vacation (ends in 10 days) and getting a 40 hour a week civilian job check at the same time.

 

[invisibledemon]

aside form having to spend the 1000, i'd say whoever took your gear did you a little favor. at least you get newer and better.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Pirata, glad this worked out for you.

A couple of questions:

1) Why did you leave expensive camera gear in the unattended truck?

2) Why did you have photos on the camera that were not backed up on your computer immediately upon your return from the activities you shot?

Twenty years ago I worked at a photo studio and the head photographer had left all his gear in his van in his driveway at home. Yes, it all got stolen. Lucky for him he had replacement insurance.

Students at the university where I work have had our checkout camera gear (4x5 view cameras) stolen from their cars; a friend of mine had his guitar or similar items stolen from his car, (etc.). So I've learned from others (and now you) not to leave valuable stuff in the car! Or to lend people your keys...

PS: I would check with soda lady next time you're at an event and see what kind of camera she's using ;-).

 

[invisibledemon]

ha! check the soda lady. too funny.

and i never leave my camera in any car. my friends always ask me why i always carry me bag with me, and tell me im weird for not leaving it in the car.
i grew up in neighborhoods where cars frequently got broken into, and theres not a chance i can afford to replace all my crap.

 

[bradster76]

Yah, I don't leave a damn inkpen in my car...people are **** and will steal anything if they think it can feed their damn crack fix.

 

[Pirata]

The new camera arrived yesterday. Almost everything else arrived too. I will try to go out and shoot some pics today and give my new camera a run. I will probably not stop leaving my camera in my truck (I can't forget to bring my camera if it's already inside my vehicle). I will most definately not be handing out my keys anymore. I am pretty sure those who had the keys were not the guilty parties in the theft of my camera but one of them is responsible for leaving my truck unlocked. The ones who had my keys are the closest thing to family I have on the East coast.

 

[Phazan]

ha! check the soda lady. too funny.

and i never leave my camera in any car. my friends always ask me why i always carry me bag with me, and tell me im weird for not leaving it in the car.
i grew up in neighborhoods where cars frequently got broken into, and theres not a chance i can afford to replace all my crap.

Seriously I never leave my camera in a car.. I will take it with me anywhere we/I go, and my friends always say I'm paranoid haha. But they don't have anything worth $2,000...