Stolen Astro Gear

[trent_julie]

Hi team,
I just wanted to ask the forum to keep an eye out for some Astro gear that was stolen from my house last week. Unfortunately the thieves have made off with over $22k worth of possessions, jewellery, clothes 3D printer you name it. Amongst all this was some Astro gear namely:
Canon 7d
Canon 1000d
Lenses including an L series

Of the big ticket Astro items (too much to list)
Televue 31mm
Televue ethos
2inch filters CLS, OIII and UHC (2 and 1 1/4)

Please keep a look out.

Trent

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Sorry to hear about your losses....
It makes me wonder about the community spirit and social aspects of our towns and cities.

[casstony]

Keep an eye on ebay for your stolen items. Also be wary of a return visit from the thieves.

If any neighbours have security cameras facing the street you might be able to review footage.

[Wavytone]

Check out the pawnbrokers near you. That stuff is all small and pocketable which suggests they grabbed whatever looked valuable enough to fetch cash for a few hits at the nearest cash converters (ie pawnbroker).

The exceptions are when what is stolen is so large they need a vehicle to carry it (ie could be anywhere) or so unusual/identifiable that it isn’t resellable suggesting someone wanted it for themselves.

[RobF (Rob)]

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

.... scum ..!!

Find them and break their fingers ....

[Wavytone]

Originally Posted by FlashDrive

... break their fingers ...

That IMHO should be for graffiti “artists” ie vandals. And make sure they can’t hold a spray can again.

[OzStarGazer]

Sorry to hear that. Yes, as others have said, keep an eye on pawnbrokers near you, and of course also on places like eBay, Craigslist etc.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Alas Gumtree is a favourite place to pass on stolen goods. Very easy to move items and easy to hide because of the huge amount of stuff posted there. Crooks get a better price there than with pawnbrokers, and Ebay doesn't get a cut. Ebay is less popular for used items because of the huge cut they take now.

[Sconesbie (Scott)]

Gumtree, Facebook Buy and Sell pages and Cash Converters and similar sites as mentioned. Cash Converters don't list anything for sale until around 7 days after receiving items. That gives them time to send police a list of items received and police can check reports etc. In saying that, things do slip through the net.

I even set up a fake Facebook profile and joined local buy and sell pages and asked if anyone had a telescope for sale with the rough description on what I was looking for. Just in case someone was stupid enough to say "Yep, I have one of those". Make sure you word a few of your family and friends up on what you are doing and they "become friends" with the new profile. "Like" a few random pages and make some posts about astronomy too. It makes it all look a bit more legitimate.

We had a telescope pinched a few months ago and it is bloody annoying. I still check Facebook and Gumtree even though we received our insurance money. The thief was charged (over 100 separate charges) but I'd love to pin her on this item too. SCUM.

I hope you can recover your goods. Good luck.

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

That IMHO should be for graffiti “artists” ie vandals. And make sure they can’t hold a spray can again.

Yeah ...them to Nick ...

[SkyWatch (Dean)]

So sorry to hear that! I hope your insurance comes to the party.
It leaves you with a horrible feeling for sure: a number of years ago I had a trailer stolen with over $35,000 worth of gear, including my portable planetarium, my 10" home-built dob (many hours of work went into that mirror!) and my Vixen 114ED. Never saw any of it unfortunately (I suspect the planetarium and the dob would have been tossed out 'cos they wouldn't have even known what it was!).
My son lives in East-end London, and every time he has his bike stolen (or bits of it) he just goes to the local pawn shop and buys it back... gotta love the cash economy.

[Ukastronomer (Jeremy)]

Originally Posted by trent_julie

Hi team,
I just wanted to ask the forum to keep an eye out for some Astro gear that was stolen from my house last week. Unfortunately the thieves have made off with over $22k worth of possessions, jewellery, clothes 3D printer you name it. Amongst all this was some Astro gear namely:
Canon 7d
Canon 1000d
Lenses including an L series

Of the big ticket Astro items (too much to list)
Televue 31mm
Televue ethos
2inch filters CLS, OIII and UHC (2 and 1 1/4)

Please keep a look out.

Trent

Thank heavens for insurance

[torana68 (Roger)]

Sorry to hear about this ��

[sil (Steve)]

not much use now for the OP but a chance for everyone else to look at Lenstag. Its a free online database originally set up to verify ownership which is the biggest hurdle in recovering stolen camera gear. You add the gear you own along with serial numbers etc, submit with a serial photo ands someone there confirms the number and gear match and you are at that moment claiming ownership. If you have serials for the stolen gear I would look there in case they have been logged as belonging to a new owner now. Proving that "at this time/date you owned this item" is what this aims to do or at least in your possession. I've been using it for years but never lost or stolen anything etc. Maybe astrogear and other stuff they may allow these days? worth asking, its a good idea to list what you can with them for such unfortunate events. So many people cause themselves problems when the gear is found by assuming the new owners were involved in the theft when often they are people like you and I who come across a bargain on ebay and just grab it without too much thinking. I doubt anyone buys second hand and thinks " I wonder if this was stolen" it always " I got a bargain". if the item is being sold at 1% of expected market price that raises flags, its much easier to sell a stolen camera at 90% of current market value. Anyway if you have your gear logged with this site and serials confirmed and then its stolen and put on ebay there will likely be a photo showing the serial or request a photo from an angle that will show it to you then you have evidence for police and ebay to take notice and action. otherwise its your word against someone elses.

Anyway Lenstag is free and is just intended to have a verified record of association of you and a piece of equipment. Items have been recovered due to the existence of this site. Photographic equipment has long been an easy income source for thieves and the gear is often of significant cost. An astromodded camera might be easy to find being sold for "parts only" since its broken and doesn't take a regular photo.If you have recipts for some of the gear I would contact the Lenstag guys, they may have entries for people who've just had gear stolen and so cant verify ownership in the normal way, they also may have other avenues to advise you to check and get your info out there in the hope someone encounters your gear.

Good luck mate. This is the only service I 've seen and it exists for this exact situation. Police aren't going to actively search, they'll want serial numbers to log just in case they pick up someone with a boot full of gear . There's no batphone to send the message about stolen camera gear to every possible second hand camera sellers.

[trent_julie]

Hi everyone,
I have just seen an eyepiece on eBay that looks the same (witness marks and the like).

Part of me thought about buying it

What would you do?

Cheers,

Trent

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Make a query to the seller ask if you can view it, that way at least if they are dumb enough to be the crook they may tell you where they live etc.

[bojan]

Buy it and if it was yours, go to the police.

[taminga16 (Greg)]

Trent, contact him, express interest and ask him if he has any other gear. Work from there.

[trent_julie]

Thanks guys,
I have been in contact with the police, pm me if you want to know the outcome, bad guys read forums too.

But for anyone who would be impacted by my situation,

RECORD YOUR SERIAL NUMBERS!

I would make this text flash if I could.

Cheers,
Trent