My Entire DVD Collection Was Stolen Last Night (1 Viewer)

[Estevan Lapena]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
There are a lot of scum bags in the world that should be sent off the islands IMHO.
I wish the best for you and your future.

 

[WillKTaylor]

Chuck .. what can I say that hasn't already been? My deepest condolences for your loss. It's a part of you that was taken ... and stuff like this really irks the heck outta me.

As a side note .. in addition to pawn shops and so on, make sure you check in with any local used DVD resellers. I sold about 12 DVDs a few weeks ago to a local Newbury comics in Massachusetts and they required a driver's license as identification before accepting the sale. In Mass., any vendor that resells items such as DVDs/CDs needs to record this information in the event that criminal activity is in the works. Who knows what the policy is in Missouri (is it?), but check into it.

All inconveniences and losses aside, I hope that you get your stuff back. DVD is a big chunk of my life and I can't imagine what it would be like to have it disappear so quickly. Best of luck to you ...

Regards

 

[Tony-B]

:frowning:

Chuck, you have all of the condolences in the world from me. I feel really, REALLY sorry for you. I hope that you can replace everything that you lost and that the police will find the little punk that committed such a horrible act and bring him to justice.

You have to look at things on the bright side too. At least that damn punk didn't harm you or your family members.

I wish you all the luck in the world with finding the punk that stole your collection, rebuilding your collection, and preventing this kind of act from ever happening again.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Establishing a cost of a DVD collection could get complicated since it's actually 600 individual items to be priced and replaced. And you probably have to actually replace them to collect.

After one or more criminals broke into my place, and took my CDs, I went all over the area to collect multiple prices on as many as possible, thinking that I'd need the prices to establish current replacement value.

That turned out to be a waste of time. The insurance company preferred to replace the discs themselves. They didn't replace everything -- for discs that had gone "out of print" or that were imports, they sent substitutes or cash. But they replaced pretty much all of the "readily available" stuff.

The insurance company did want proof that I owned the CDs. Having inventory photos (and longboxes) and a bunch of paper receipts made filing the claim much easier.

 

[ZackR]

Chuck,

Man, I feel for you. My wife and I were burglarized a few months ago. Luckily, my DVD's were OK and no one was hurt though. The pieces of human garbage that robbed us got my laptop , DVD player and GameCube though. AGGHH!!! My insurnce rep was great though. They gave me the price I paid for some of it, so on a few things, I actually came out ahead. It is a very helpless feeling though. I was seriously wishing that I had a huge vicious dog. I thought it would have been great to come home and find a piece of scum thief lying on the floor with a vicious guard dog next to him holding the scumbag's disconnected testicles dangling from his mouth. Off topic: You know what shows I love? Those ones where it shows some crackhead moron trying to rob some old man at a convenience store and then the elderly convenience store owner saves the cops the trouble and blows the dirtbag away. Man, I know that sounds harsh, but I take my home very seriously. My home is mine. I don't want some loser violating that. It isn't even so mch my stuff as it is the priciple of the thing. Anyways, I am sorry that you were robbed. Best of luck in getting your collection replaced.

Best Regards,
Zack

 

[Josh Pounds]

I'm just going to chime in and say how utterly disgusted I am at this -- I know they're just DVDs, it's just stuff, no one was hurt -- but you don't mess with a man's personal property that he worked hard for.

They're only just little five inch wide silver and gold discs, but it's what's on them. They're our movies. Perhaps I'm sentimentalizing the whole thing too much -- but it's disgusting.

You all know what I'm talking about.

And Chuck -- I'm sorry to tell you this, friend, but don't count on ever seeing them again. The police don't really care. That's the sad reality of it.

 

[ZackR]

I agree with Josh. Such people are disgusting. Even if it weren't your movies...it is your HOME. You do not violate a person's home. I know such things are not a big deal to cops, but still. Such losers should be caught and punished. I appreciate ths thread though, because I am going to call and check on my insuance policy in the AM and make sure I have my colletion properly protected.

Zack

 

[Dick]

Regardless of what was stolen or how much, what this sort of break-in does is eat away at your sense of security. No one is ever the same after some one gets into their home uninvited. It makes the victim feel violated, and a much of one's trust and feeling of safety is compromised. Sorry it happened to you, guy.

 

[Jon_Are]

Todd - maybe you should tone down your posts a bit? You seem to be making a lot of assumptions.

Which group are you concerned about offending, Martin; the crackheads or the thieves?

Jon

 

[Chuck Watwood]

I want to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to express your condolences. I am still a little in shock. I spent most of yesterday removing my old front door and finding a custom made replacement, giving police and insurance interviews and arranging for an alarm system to be installed on Friday. The insurance adjuster wants an inventory and pictures if possible. I never did either. I plan on going to Best Buy and walking through their isles trying to be as complete as possible in making a collection list. I have a good memory of what I had in my collection, although I know its not perfect. I also have many friends as well as a couple of the guys at Best Buy that I'm sure will sign affidavits for me. I hope the insurance company cooperates. The police detective told me that things like tools, stereo equiment, furniture, etc. require a drivers liscense photocopy to sell to Pawn shops here in Missouri, however, DVD's are liquid gold. They can sell all they want without any proof of ownerships or getting their liscense copied. I will keep all of you informed on whats happening and I intend to change my habits. Each and every DVD will be documented for sure. I'm thinking of making a secure room in my basement with a lockable steel casing door and deadbolt to store my DVD's and CD's and other valuables such as cameras. I'm lucky probably. They could have taken much much more. That will at least make it harder for thieves to pop-in quickly and go. As far as hauling off DVD's, that was easy for them. They used trash bags from under my sink and just shoved them in and carried them out. I'm guessing it didn't take more than a couple of minutes for a couple of people to clean me out. I found the top of one bag that had ripped off as they carried them out. I do have one possible lead now and have informed the police. I hope they get them but I'm not holding out hope. I'll just try to deal with the insurance company now. Again, thanks for the suppport from this forum. Its so appreciated.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Chuck, im sorry to hear that. I cant imagine what youre going through, i hope if they catch them as punishment in jail ,make them watch justin to kelly dvd their whole lives.

 

[ZackR]

Chuck, im sorry to hear that. I cant imagine what youre going through, i hope if they catch them as punishment in jail ,make them watch justin to kelly dvd their whole lives.

YES! Make sure it is a P&S version of the film!!

...actually, seeing less of that film might make it more bearable, so, give it to them in OAR!!

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I can't imagine an insurance company going through the hassle of actually bying and getting to you the replacement disks. Likewise, I can't see them wanting to price each and every title of a 600 disc collection. I would think they would just use a norm or average, most probably $19.95 per title, since this is the most common price we see. ANd even if they do look for lower prices, they're probably only going to use B&M prices or mainstream internet, like Amazon. So if you rebuild using CH, as much as possible, you should still come out ahead.

Of course, Thomas had a different experience, but in dealings I've had with insurance they usually just want to agree on a settlement amount, cut the check and move on.

 

[Mitch Stevens]

This is my worst nightmare as well. I feel REALLY bad for you to go through this. I know it can't be easy trying to replace that many DVDs. Chances are, even after the insurance gives you the money to replace these DVDs, you still will be missing some of them, due to out of print/rare titles. :frowning:

I have only 450 DVDs and some of them being limited editions. The greatest fear I have, is not only trying to get them all back, but WATCHING each and every single one again, just to make sure that it's not defective. I watch every single extra on every DVD I own to make sure that it works perfect. Out of my collection, I have found at least 40 DVDs being defective, and have had to return them and get one that works.

I know that a lot of people here are saying that they are "just movies, or just DVDs" I don't feel that way at all. My DVD collection is the ONLY true thing I have of value in my house....other than my $3,000 HDTV, my DVDs are far more valuable than the TV.

 

[Tony-B]

What about Gigli when it comes out? Or Glitter, The Real Cancun, Swept Away, Rollerball, Master of Disguise, Crossroads, or Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever? Wow, that would be torture.

Chuck, I am happy to hear that you have a lead. As I have said, I wish you the best of luck.

About documenting your DVDs, I would suggest using a program called DVD Profiler. I have been using it to track my DVDs, and it works really well.

I hope something like this never happens to any of us.

 

[Shane D]

I can't believe there are so many of us from springfield on the boards. I never realized.

In addition to cdwarehouse to see if anything has been sold lately, dont forget to check caveman or metagames, and all the gold exhanges.

I had a friend who had his binder of cd's stolen at the mall while he worked there about 6 years ago, which sucks, but i told him to look on the bright side, that 15 year old that lifted it was mighty disappointed when 5 of the 20 pages was all rush cd's. =0)

(I like rush, i was just implying to him that most 15 year olds don't)


oh, and to mac users, where did you find that readerware program to list your dvds?

 

[Scott Kimball]

oh, and to mac users, where did you find that readerware program to list your dvds?

www.readerware.com

Didn't look too hard, eh?

 

[Shane D]

well i checked versiontracker and nothing came up. Them actually having a website never occured to me. =0)

 

[John_bri]

Chuck, When I heard that a chill went down my spine because I hate the idea of me or anyone getting their DVD's stolen. But I am not surprised, DVD's are a hot comodity (sp?) these days that any street people will just break in and go for CD's, DVD's, Tapes, anything to get easy money. My dad got robbed 2 years ago, the guy took his change jar and all the CD's he could carry. I suggest putting your DVD collection in an unlikely place like a modified closet or do something creative like make a mockup of a row of books using real book binders and disguise your DVD's as Books in a bookcase.

 

[MartinTeller]

Which group are you concerned about offending, Martin; the crackheads or the thieves?

The suggestion that a thief must be on crack and/or unemployed is a bit presumptuous. It just kinda sounded like scapegoating to me.