Today is my Unlucky/Lucky Day

[Michael Pancier]

As Monty Python would always have us look on the bright side of life, dig this:

I attend a meeting today for a charity I am assisting with a fundraiser; not in the best part of town, but not the worst.

I'm in there for about 45 minutes and parked in a gated parking area. I had planned on meeting with these folks for my brief meeting and then try to get some shooting in.

In that short time span, some deviant scumbags decide to break into my car and rip out my stereo/nav system (which they can't use since it is a factory system that will only work on my car and cannot be activated without a factory code that is given from the factory itself; only dealers can activate this thing), they steal an old iPod, my cables and chargers, loose change, a flashlight, a bluetooth earpiece (that they cannot use since I have the charger at home), and my son's old digital camera (Canon S-50) ... with images he took at Wako a week ago.

I have insurance of course, and while the damage is in the thousands of dollars, eventually it will be fixed and I will get new system via insurance company. I'm also out some dough.

But I am lucky that these dolts did not get into my trunk that had my 5d Mark II, 24-105L, 15mm fisheye, 24mm t/s, and 70-200 2.8L lenses and a gitzo 1227 tripod especially since they are going with me to Utah in 14 days.

Even though the items are insured, the headache in getting equipment replaced would have been a nightmare in time for my trip. So I guess that was the lucky part of my day. Go figure.

[Harold Davis]

sorry to hear that, michael. i had a feeling that the economic situation we are would not bring out the goodness in people and your story goes to prove it. i had the same type thing happen to me recently when i got by golf clubs and bag stolen. they got away with a bag that had my name embroidered on it and a set of pings that had my bosses name etched into them. the only thing of value was an old arnold palmer wedge that i had since i was 16 yo that i dearly loved. probably worth $25. everything else they had to trash. thing is, they stole them right off my golf cart which was parked right in front of the pro shop door!!

hope you have a great trip to utah. somehow i think your security situation will be a little better there!

[Maxis Gamez]

Sorry to hear that Michael. Insurance is the way to go "these" days. Good luck recovering everything.

[Alfred Forns]

That was a lucky breat Mike ... no pun intended !!! Glad they did not get into the trunk. Somehow I think they can get that stereo/nav working faster than the factory :)

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Sorry to hear about the traumatic day. Hope you got all the bad out before you head west. Hope they catch the scum-bags.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

You seemed to have kept your cool Michael. Good thing your stuff was in the trunk, hidden, and more difficult to access.

[Stefan Minnig]

Sorry to hear of your unfortunate/fortunate situation. Similar thing happened at my work, and right in the parking lot as well (not even in a bad part of town). Someone yanked items from our chief photographer's vehicle...fortunately missing the thousands of dollars in photo gear in the back.

[Ed Cordes]

I too am sorry to hear of your incident. You are lucky they didn't break into the trunk as well. Hopefully they catch these guys before they do additional damage to others After catching them they should be put away for a long time.

[Robert Redd]

Back in November someone stole my lawn service equipment, I have no ins. so had to sell my camera gear to replace everything. I will probably never be able to take pictures again.

[Paul Lagasi]

Insurance will always cover the equipment..for me the loss would be the photos, your son took in Wako, you can never get those back...
While family and I took one last vacation to Nassau by boat...I was warned not to leave my GPS in my parked car in Lauderdale...seems times are tough and anything that can be stolen is...at least thats what security person said.
You said it though..lucky they didn't get into trunk...
Best of luck on trip west...when you get out to Utah make sure you visit Antelope Island had a great time there photographing wildlife.
Paul

[Michael Pancier]

Back in November someone stole my lawn service equipment, I have no ins. so had to sell my camera gear to replace everything. I will probably never be able to take pictures again.

That's awful Robert. We had an incident here last week where some thiefs broke into a bakery and literally store everything including the ovens. This place had been in business for over 20 years and had to close their doors.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Michael...sorry to hear your going through this.Last year I was at Butterfly world with 2 friends. To anyone who's been there the parking lot looks pretty safe and it's in a good area. When we left and walked in the parking lot we saw police writing a report. The car right in front of ours was broken into. Glass was all over!
In our car was at least $25,000 worth of gear(between the 3 of us) Needless to say I was shocked.
To anyone who has valuable camera gear and doesn't have insurance...BUY IT! it's cheap....