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

[Scott Kimball]

The suggestion that a thief must be on crack and/or unemployed is a bit presumptuous.

Perhaps... but I, for one, am not concerned about offending the sensibilities of the average (or, even above average) thief.

Nope.
Not concerned at all.

Now, calling an honest unemployed person or addict a thief, I might have a problem with.



-Scott

 

[Angel Pagan]

Sorry for your loss Chuck. Hope they catch the bastards and you get your property returned/refunded.

Keep us posted.

 

[Brian_L_Kleis]

Hey Chuck,

I can sympathize completely - In August of 2002, my DVD collection was stolen, though under different circumstances.

I had left town for the weekend when my female roommate decided (in her infinite wisdom) to leave her 21 year old unemployed pot dealer in our shared apartment for five hours while she went out to get groceries and run errands. Well, he called his friends and cleaned us both out of lots of stuff, including just over 300 DVDs of mine, one of my guitars, DVD player, watches, camera and cash. Nobody was hurt mind you, but when I returned on Sunday night and discovered this, I moved out that night.

With all I lost in the robbery, I never received any real help from the police, being as this kid/punk/idiot/venting here now/dufus/a** was let into our apartment purposely... I have my database and spreadsheets of all I own, costs, when purchased, release dates, etc., but because of the nature of the crime, nothing was ever done... AND THERE WENT MY CRITERION SALO OUT THE DOOR.... plus another 45 or so early Criterions (Killer, Spinal Tap, Hard Boiled, etc) and everything else I had worked so hard to build...

Well, now a year and a month later, I've replaced about 60 of those originally stolen DVDs and let a lot of them go, as I realized many of them weren't totally needed. The robbery, while not fun at all, did give me a little better sense of what really is worth a full purchase and has significant rewatch value, as opposed to how many I can just blindly gobble up every Tuesday... I do still get things on Tuesdays, but am just more selective anymore...

Again, you understand, I can totally sympathize and I'm very sorry for your loss - It is like part of you gets ripped away that can't really be replaced. I'm living solo now myself with nobody else in any way responsible for my living area, and I like it that way. My love of film and this format never diminished, thank goodness. Friends will occasionally roll their eyes when I'm in BBuy or whereever going, "Oh, I USED to have this, and USED to have this..."

Take it easy, don't lose faith in people in general, and keep in mind, the memories and feelings we create when seeing our films are something that nobody can really ever steal...

Brian K.

 

[Rob Lutter]

I know if anyone ever stole my copy of This is Spinal Tap: Criterion Collection... that they would be hunted down by me

Of course, no one would EVER steal my Criterion LD

 

[Robert Dunnill]

Sorry to hear this. This dread possibility is why I no longer advertise my collection in my tagline, and why I scrapped the idea for a "Webmaster's Home Theater" page for my site.

RD

 

[Tony_Faville]

Man, one of my worst fears, after bodily harm or something to my family. Fortunately I am religous about cataloguing my collection and taking pictures every once in awhile.

Have known my insurance agent for years and she assures me that if anything ever happens they will pay according to my DVD Profiler inventory. Still, don't want to go through that.

 

[Steve_Tk]

As big as a pain in the ass that it is, and a $500 dollar deductable, I don't see why the insurance company would not pay for every dollar (unless they pull some garbage about no documentation).

I don't hide anything anymore or pay for a security system. But I do have everything video taped in my home with two copies, one of which with my parents and my copy in my fireproof safe. If I'm going to pay for insurance then I'm damn well going to get to use it when something happens.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I can't imagine an insurance company going through the hassle of actually bying and getting to you the replacement disks.

The insurance company that replaced mine didn't mail discs from their own offices. They subcontracted that job to a home electronics outfit.

I'm guessing that for the insurer, one of the attractions would be access to bulk-rate (near-wholesale) prices.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

I feel for your loss too. After some thought though, no one would just steal DVD's unless they knew that they were there - without taking anything else too.

I'll never figure out their mentality. I would look around for some of the titles that were on the off-side. DVD's that only a few people would even consider buying.

Glenn

 

[Gregg Shiu]

Well, Chuck, my message is pretty much the same 3 points already touched upon by everyone else: I'm truly sorry for your loss, thank God you and your family are all ok, and I hope whoever did this gets caught and sentenced to watching Gigli while doing ten years in jail. If you'd like some help to start rebuilding any of your collection, you can PM me and I'd be happy to give you a new copy of like Almost Famous or something. Good luck with your insurance stuff.

 

[DaveGTP]

Feel bad for you Chuck. I had someone take off with about 100 CDs from my car and assorted other stuff about 2 years back. They tried to get my Kenwood CD player too, but apparently it was installed too well - they couldn't pry it out of the dash. My fault though, the car was probably unlocked. I had hands full of groceries the night before, and my keyless had died quite a way before that, so I didn't have a free hand to lock the door. I remember kicking the door shut with one foot with hands full of groceries . We're in a smaller town though, so I wasn't paranoid enough to go back out and lock the car. Now I am.

Soon after I ended up getting a newer car - it has installed keyless and sucky stock security system. Not effective enough to stop anyone who knows what they are doing (nothing ever is), but enough to deter punks.

Kind of like the Rush story above though, I hope they enjoyed the 6 or 7 legit Collective Soul CDs, singles, etc and several copies of some Collective soul *ahem* live stuff CD-Rs that were in there too! When they took my CDs, they took my electric shaver. Who on Earth steals a used shaver!!?!?

 

[Estevan Lapena]

Jackass kids that's who. Seems that they wanted to rob you of both you CD's and hygiene as a joke.

 

[Mark_Paul]

This is awful news. I really feel for you and hope you can recover, not just in terms of your movie collection but also psychologically.

really, I apologize.

Why did you apologize Todd? You have nothing to apologize for.

 

[Brent M]

After reading all these posts, a thought occurred to me. If everyone who has responded to this post sent Chuck just one DVD out of their collection, he would already have about 75 DVDs to start the rebuliding process. I know that I for one can spare a single title for this worthy cause and I'm pretty sure most of the other people responding to this post can as well. If anyone is interested in doing this and if you would like our help, Chuck, please respond to this post and maybe we can make this happen.

 

[Joel C]

Loyola stole $2500 from me due to a loan error, can everyone send me a dollar?

Seriously, it sucks and all, but I wouldn't feel comfortable taking charity from people like this. The're just DVDs, after all (and I have a lot, and they are worth more than everything else I own, even my car, probably).

I mean, a "worthy" cause? Seriously?

 

[Brent M]

Joel,

It was a suggestion for a nice gesture to help a guy out who has just been ripped off. If you don't see it that way and don't want to contribute, nobody is holding a gun to your head. No need to be a dick about it!

 

[Chuck Watwood]

Brent,

Thanks for your kind suggestion. I won't take you up on your offer but it is sincerely appreciated. I am still compiling a list of what was stolen. I didn't have them entered into a database and had no pictures of my DVD's. I do, however, have 8-10 friends and acquaintances including sales people at Best Buy and Walmart who will sign affidavits for me. I have spent 12-15 hours at BB and CC going through their DVD's and compiling a list with UPC numbers and studio stock numbers. It has been exhausting. I realize that many of the titles that I had are out of stock or print. Many of the really nice special versions are no longer made. The insurance company wants a detailed list of what was stolen and I have many more hours typing the information into an excel form and the accessing web sites to double check my numbers. I am angry at whoever stole my collection and I hope a bus hits them, seriously. I realize they are just DVD's and I also realize as a previous poster added, that I won't rebuild my entire collection as was. I will be much more selective in the future. I will get past this, but a part of me has been ripped. I still don't know how the insurance company is going to handle this. I would really rather they pay me a lump sum so I can rebuild my collection the way I want rather than try to replace the discs with inferior or different versions, and in some cases, better versions. I'll keep the list posted on what happens. I have American Family Insurance by the way. Has anyone had any dealings with them? Its my first claim with them in the 10 years I've had insurance.

 

[DAN NEIR]

So sorry to hear this. A similar thing happened to me in '87 when some gutless losers stole 3/4 of my vhs tapes and about 1/3 of my beta tapes. They also took my tv and vcrs so I know how violated and angry you must feel.

 

[Chad A Wright]

Because of this thread, I've begun locking up my DVD's. I live out in the country, and all my discs are out in my home office that is separate from the house. I never even thought of locking them up (I actually had to hunt down a key to the building).

I feel for your loss, but perhaps the best that can come of this is we can all learn a valuable lesson.

 

[DeathStar1]

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.>>>>>>>>>

Hmm, that would explain when our Shore house was broken into. They didn't take the Stereo System, or the little portable TV we had. All the Cabinet Doors where open, though, as well as some of the draws in the bedrooms. Must have been looking for some quick cash. One of the reasons why we destroyed that 80 year old decaying shore house, and built a brand new one that was tougher to break into....

They never did catch the people who broke into our house, so I hope your luckier than we where..