Stolen Camera Gear Dilemma -- Your thoughts

I had a difficult experience in the last week which is now both good news and bad news and I need sound advice.

Last weekend I flew to Tampa for my annual trip to Ding Darling.  I had my backpack with a 7D and 500mm f/4L and other similar gear and a rolling back with my Fuji X-E2 and X-E1 and a couple of lenses plus accessories,  I opened the trunk of my rental car with the smart key remote, put the bags inside, secured the trunk and returned the luggage cart to the end of the row of rental cars.  I went back to the car after exchanging greetings with a police officer in the rental car garage, drove off, stopped at a Wal-Mart for soda and water and when I came out to put the soda and water in the trunk it was empty,  Wal-Mart security video showed nobody near the car.  NO VIDEO in the airport garage (you heard that right--weird).

My trip was ruined.  I returned to the airport, dealt police who were reluctant to do much and got into a turf battle with the sheriff's department that patrols the Wal-Mart area and I came home.  The gear is insured.  I filed a claim with my insurance company (very cooperative, I might add.) Loss: Over $25K.

I spent several days trying to deal with this and buying replacement gear.  I thought the Canon gear might be more difficult to fence so I delayed replacing it in the hopes that it might be recovered if there were attempts to pawn it. 

Imagine my surprise at 2 a.m. Thursday when I heard from the rental car company that BOTH bags were recovered, placed inside another car.  My speculation is that the thief (who appears to have gotten into the trunk by popping the folding rear seat latch) got spooked and abandoned it.  The gear was tightly packed and not easily dumped out or accessed.  Plus there was an officer not far away.  Five hours later I was back on my way to Tampa to see what was recovered.

About $200 cash and some odds and ends were missing.  Not sure if the Canon stuff was damaged.  Doesn't look like it.

Now...the dilemma.

I spent about $4K on new gear including:

• MacBook Air.
• Fuji X-E2.
• Fuji X-E1.
• Fuji 16mm extension tube.
• Fuji 18-55mm and 55-200 lenses.
• Polaroid 58mm 500D closeup lens.
• Odds and ends.

I now have the old gear back.  I was thinking of a new MacBook Air recently and I will keep that.  Will also keep the other X-E2.  As for the other stuff, I now have duplicates (in fact, in case of the X-E1, triplicates). 

My insurance company is willing to reimburse me but I would need to turn in the recovered stolen gear that I replaced.  (They are also willing to pay for Canon to inspect and repair, if necessary, the 500mm f/4L should I wish.)  My fear is that if I do collect on the claim it might raise my rates and/or result in cancellation.

On the other hand, I could try to sell that which I am not going to use.  I would still have a chunk of loss but not as much.

Although you are never really prepared for situations like this one thing I was prepared for is to give the police an inventory and serial numbers fairly quickly. Not a lot of fun.

So much for airport security. Please next time lock the car.
You may want to ask the insurance company (in writing) if your rates will increase based on if you keep the returned equipment or not. It may make no difference, they may increase because of the event, or be unaffected. Learning that should help you make a better economic decision.
Sorry for your troubles.

Seems you bad luck turned good with the insurance.  I'd personally let the insurance company handle things.  Selling off gear is a hassle. 

It sounds to me like somebody at the car rental place stole the stuff because otherwise, how would it mysteriously appear in a different rental car?

What rental car company did you use?

What insurance company is covering all your gear? 

Avis.  West Bend.  And there is some speculation that it may have been an "inside job" though not necessarily Avis employees (many companies use the same garage).  Someone may have been casing the area looking for a quick opportunity.  The total time was maybe 90 seconds from when I secured the trunk to when I returned to the vehicle.  The method of entry was puzzling but then while driving someone cut me off and I braked hard followed by the rear seat crashing forward.  Also saw scrape marks in the trunk carpet indicating that the bags were pulled out. 

Dick, sorry for your troubles. Do you have any insurance coverage on the car rental/stolen baggage agreement that could be a factor, either through the rental agreement or the credit card used to pay for the car rental? if Yes, West Bend will probably try and get recovery for their losses through Avis or the cc company. I would ask West Bend them if this is a possibility. I am leaning toward letting the insurance company handle things. If you have not filed a police report, you may have to do it to comply with all of the insurance policy requirements.

I believe all trunks lock automatically when closed. So it looks like someone near Avis is the culprit. I cannot believe there is no security camera setup. That is poor risk management on the part of Avis.

Joe Smith

Joe, thanks. To be clear, this is airport property used by many rental car companies. I am surprised that there is no video surveillance as well for homeland security purposes (there is in the return area but not in the rental area). I did file police reports but the airport police tried to pawn it off (no pun intended) on the sheriff's department where the Wal-Mart is located even though the Wal-Mart video shows no inappropriate activity.

One thing I think may have helped here, by the way, is that the 7D and almost all of the smaller gear was wrapped (Domke/Tenba/Op Tech) which slows things down. One camera body/lens was not so wrapped (it was inside a clear bag with a Hood Hat) and that was the one that was played with.

I am thinking it may be better to try to sell the equipment myself because what West Bend would do in all likelihood is try to sell it and I would still face negative action.

Inside job - maybe the person that told you there was no video was in on it. I can't believe there were no cameras installed - not likely nowadays.

Why not sell everything you replaced and the put in a claim for the difference for what you paid to replace the gear and what you got for selling the stuff that was returned. You save the insurance company some hassle and it shows them good faith on your part. I wouldn't think that it would raise your rates that much.

Often the insurance company will not raise rates because of a single claim.  And more often they will tell you that.  However, the risk is if you need to file a subsequent claim for another event.  Then you may find your policy being cancelled (or unable to be renewed) for too many claims.  

And sometimes other insurance policies will refuse to insure because you had too many claims on other policies.  i.e. you might incur higher auto rates because you filed too many property claims.  This scenario is usually a very rude surprise to people that have filed (often small) claims.

The above said make sure the insurance company knows that you are NOT filing a claim.  Then sell (or return) the newly purchased stuff yourself.

I would let Avis head-office know what happened and the situation there (no security cameras, suspicious chain of events, etc.).  Don't assume personnel at the Avis location where you rented the car is the end-all.  Avis head office may want to know what happened. At the very least save the next customers from the same fate. Who knows how many before you had fallen to the same thefts at the same location.

If you deal with a broker, ask them what this claim can do to your rates, if anything. Ask someone at the insurance company. Simple question like, this incident and claim, how will this affect me in the future and what if I did this and blah, blah, blah. Since the insurance company already knows you reported it, they already know what happened.

I am not saying this happened to you but once in a blue moon, I would surprise myself to see that my trunk was not actually locked when I thought it was. This happens rarely but it does happen. I would assume that the rental company would always have a spare key around just in case customers for whatever reason lose theirs.

I assume Wal-Mart did review their video footage and knew exactly where you had parked your car (and there was no miscommunication or misunderstanding of the exact spot...and are you able to see the footage, would Wal-Mart allow you to do that?). In which case, it does sound like someone was casing the car rental area out.  Very brazen I might add to do it with the customer still so close by and a police officer to boot. As a curiosity, you might want to see if such incidents are more common at that location (maybe ask the police precinct responsible for that area or Avis head office, etc.).

I know you purchased a combo of cameras and lenses. Not sure what the return policy is for these items from the stores you bought them. The cameras may be past a certain shutter actuation but the lenses may not have such restrictions. You can try and explain what happened to the retailer (they may not believe you of course but if you have a copy of the claims documentation, who knows).

Even though the new cameras were never used (except to do firmware updates) I would feel inappropriate to return something that I unpacked, got ready, etc. Maybe fired off one shot.

Apparently the biggest problem is in the rental return area, not the pickup area -- or so I was told. The Wal-Mart video was reviewed by sheriff's deputies and Wal-Mart security. While the trunk was secure the passenger compartment apparently was not. Ironically, when I left the Wal-Mart to return to the airport some idiot cut me off and I braked suddenly. The rear seat came crashing down. It appears entry was gained by unlatching the rear seat and pulling the bags out (we found scrape marks in the trunk carpet). I believe (and I have over 40 years of law enforcement experience) that this was planned and carried out quickly. Something happened to cause the thief/thieves to get spooked and give up, perhaps seeing the officer in the garage.

I have been in constant communication with my agent and the insurance company. Both have been very good to work with.

Dick Ginkowski wrote:Even though the new cameras were never used (except to do firmware updates) I would feel inappropriate to return something that I unpacked, got ready, etc.  Maybe fired off one shot.  

Something happened to cause the thief/thieves to get spooked and give up, perhaps seeing the officer in the garage.

Not many are in a financial position to think like that (and I am sure there are folks who would think like that regardless of finances but not many I am sure, etc.).  The hassle of selling gear when a merchant would fully understand and accept the return and you are back to square one with the insurance company.  Well, it is your choice of course.

As for the thieves. they had enough time to open your car, take out the bags and put it into another rental car.  They don't appear to be the sort that spooks easily.  However, I am surprised as to why they just left the gear around. If they went through all that trouble, I think they could easily have just taken the gear itself.  Maybe they were just interested in the cash and pawning the gear would be more difficult and a hassle to do.  They looked for the quick grab and untraceable stuff.