I Got Robbed
 

So yeah, my house got broken into 3 days ago. They only stole from my room. Took about 1,500 - 2,000 dollars worth of dvd's. A lot of rare and oop dvd's that I will probably never find again. I am so angry. Maybe I deserve it for holding a posession like that so close to me. But I am a collector so wtf. Anyways, they also got my PS2 and a alarm clock. Doesn't make sense. At least I have like 50 some dvd's logged through dvdspot.com along with the UPC codes. So I have filed for a police report and I have been checking these stores called the exchange where you can sell back dvd's. I went with them providing a list and told them to look out for rare dvd's and if anyone brings them in to sell. If they do, I will have their ass. Because they take Drivers licenses from anyone who sells dvd's to the store.

Anything like this happen to you guys before?

Try and cheer me up. I have never been this down in the dumps before.

It's funny, my girlfriend of two years and I have broken up a day before this happened and I am more upset about my dvd collection being stolen...

Hate to state the obvious here, but could she be the one behind this?

Was it a particularly nasty breakup?
I don't want to sound like a complete ass, but maybe she had something to do with it...

Apologizing in advance if that's not even close to possible, just throwing out an idea.

EDIT: Ah, at least I'm not the only one. :D

haha, no. She moved 12 hours away to New Hampshire for Law school. That would be impossible. And if she was, I'd pull a misery on her ass with a block of wood and a sledge hammer if you catch my drift. But no, it wasn't her. Also, there was no forced entry in the house. They got through the garage. They either picked it or it was left unlocked from before. But why would they kick open my roomates door as well and take nothing, but kick mine open and just take dvd's and my ps2? maybe a quick buck reselling it to a exchange store or somethign i'm guessing...

^^

I think the same thing pinata & Randy think

you got robbed to? or you had a break up? haha

Probably just a quick buck.

Remember to check pawn shops, too, as well as the typical used stores...

I was burglarized one weekend in college, and the bastards took my still budding DVD collection (about 50 or so), my DVD player, my laptop with all of my college notes, and my ZIP drive with all of my ZIP disks. All told it was probably a few thousand dollars worth of stuff gone, and unfortunately the cops couldn't do anything about it.

I think you're doing the right thing in checking the local stores, but even they weren't very helpful to me.

Sorry for your loss. It's such a horrible feeling to know someone else has been in your home and taken your stuff. Good luck.

No, just sharing the same paranoid ideas, that's all.
I'm still married, according to my wife. :D

my house was once broken into, the strange thing was that none of my dvd's, cd's, electronic doodads were taken, just a large oldish looking wood box from the bedroom that had nothing of value in it - :lol: boy they must have been pissed after fleeing the house and finding what they took was stupid and pointless.

Dayam dude, that sucks, I'm sorry to hear that. Just having the feeling of someone going through all your personal possessions..... not good.
Good idea on notifying stores about the rare DVD's someone might try to cell.
The breakup a day before sounds a bit suspicious to me. Even if it wasn't a nasty breakup. Maybe she had a friend who is a thief and was eyeing your collection for a while. When you guys broke up, maybe he figured she woudln't care, or maybe she knew and wouldn't care, and he did the deed.

hahaha.

nah, she is a quiet girl. i know for a fact she had no hand in it. But previous roomates still have keys to the house, so that's quite possible.

It's funny, my roomate and I even called off work yesterday. We parked our cars on another block to make it look like noone was home. I also put an empty packaged box on the front pourch to make it look like a ups delivery and use that as bait so someone would think noone was home.

Because, I have a 30 inch widescreen HD TV, but it's a crt and it's heavy. They unplugged the coax cable and the power cable so I know they were going to take it but it was to heavy. So I thought they might come back for it, so I called off work along with my roomate praying they would take the bait and break back in thinking noone woul dbe home. If that would have happened I would have made hanibal lector look like a kitten after i was finished with the theif....

watch today when i go home my tv will be gone. i will snap! I work hard for everything I have. I am an independent filmmaker so all my money goes into my little collection and the films I make. I deserve better than this.....

[quite]But previous roomates still have keys to the house, so that's quite possible.[/quote]

Were they trustworthy? Might be a good time to change those locks!

Sorry to hear about your burglary, that must suck. I think you're doing the right thing with giving the list out to the exchange stores

they were all trustworthy, except for one, but he moved back to Ohio. Doesn't mean he couldn't come back to Pittsburgh though. I would change the lock but we are moving out into a new place this weekend. What are the odds, days before we move, I get robbed.....

We did try and home alone our house for the time being, so if they break in again, they are in for some treats.

Sounds very suspicious. That they recognized your DVD collection to be of value is extremely odd considering that a single DVD would fetch - what $5 at a pawn shop?

Maybe it was an inside job. One of your roommates. Like you said, it's suspicious that none of their stuff was taken. If the shoe fits....

yeah, they can probably get 5 bucks a pop, because pawn shops and buy/sell exchange stores have no idea about value when it comes to dvds. It's not my current roomate I do know that for a fact. Couple have ben a previous.

Also thought it could have been young kids maybe trying to get a quick buck for a fix. then again, why would a young kid want an alarm clock? it's very shady and I need to do some detective work to find the person behind this. If the FBI can crack a case that happened 25 years ago, why couldn't i find out who did this. know what i'm saying......

I really hope you get those DVDs back, and go Nicky Santoro on those who are responsible for this.

That sucks dude. You do have renters insurance, right? You should be able to rebuild your collection, minus your deductible, provided you can find places that sell those rare ones that were stolen.

I suspect most people who are renters don't insure their possessions.

On a side note...here in Oregon, at least 80% of property crimes (i.e. breaking and entering) is related to tweakers. I can think of two possible scenarios. First that those who broke in knew what they were looking for (you may have been cased at some point and don't realize it) and may or may not try to sell your dvds. Second, that those who broke in needed items to satisfy a fix (i.e. meth). People on meth will try to sell you virtually anything (i.e. alarm clock) with any value to get a fix.

As for me, I even limit who can go into the area where my dvd's are kept. You never know when you may be cased. For many on these boards, their dvd collection may be one of their greatest assets not counting a car or house. Sorry about your loss.

I have renter's insurance, but what else should be done in addition to that? Take pics, keep an inventory, etc?

i feel for you. i know how i felt when i was robbed years back. sounds like an inside job to me. somebody knew you had alot of good stuff. did the cops dust for prints?

I'd like to know this as well. I have renter's insurance but the only records I have of my DVDs are about 75% of the receipts (some weren't saved when I first bought DVDs) and my DVDSpot collection list.

You're very wise, but probably in the minority (I very well could be wrong). If you use a dvd database to catalog your collection, many collectors also keep a printed copy of it as well just in case. Of course you have to update the list periodically, but it helps if you do have to file a claim for theft. Insurance claims can be a huge hassle...the more documentation you have to back your claim, the better.

I was robbed in 1988 and I knew who did it, but couldn't prove it to the police. This so-called "friend" turned drug addict stole my almost all of my cassette tapes (probably about 100+) (this was before I started collecting CDs!), a nice black leather fringed jacket, a gold bracelet my girlfriend gave me, my VCR off the top of my TV (which happened to be recording a movie at the time off TV while I was at work!), and basically piled everything into my laundry basket and took that too when he left out my door with it all!

I told the police who did it, and they went to his house to talk to him, but they said they couldn't do anything unless they happened to have seen one of my items reported stolen sitting out where they could see it from the open front door when they questioned the guy.

Since they didn't, I got screwed and no justice. Altho luckily I believe in karma - so I'm pretty sure that a-hole got his eventually anyway...

But I feel for you buddy. There's nothing more effed up than getting robbed like that. Such a effed feeling of "violation" and how someone went thru all your personal shit like that.

My apartment never felt like "home" for me ever again after that. And I moved out a few months later.

And no, back then, I didn't have renter's insurance. I had it at my last place I lived it for the last 13 years before moving to Texas - and luckily never needed it!

Just got back from lunch. But no, the cops never dusted for prints. I knew there was nothing much they could have done. They took my statement and filed a police report, So in the next couple of days I will go pay for it and pick up a copy.

I have friends that work at the exchange, so they will help me out if any big sells come in.

There is this place called ninja entertainment which is shady as all hell. They buy anything and care less if it's stolen. So hopefully the people didn't sell my dvd's to that place.

Overall i'm just fired up that people get away with things like this. I work a full time job and pay for everything I own, yet I get shafted. Which happened to many of you guys. I can understand if they took my external harddrive, my camera or anything else. But filmmaking and movies are what i'm all about. When they mess with that I'm going to do somehting about it. Something will happen or someone will slip up. Usually always does. I just got to keep checking stores and keep my ears open. That's about my only option. but like the one guy said. Karma will kick in and take it's path.

Shouldn't this be in other?

Yes, this happened to me. Took about 120 DVD's, 300 CD's, DVD player, PS2 + half dozen or so games. Some other junk. I knew who it was.

Next day, after a couple pawn shop visits, I went to the nearby record store & described what was stolen & the counter guy had me follow him to the back room and there was all of the CD's plus a good handful of DVD's. Since it was a pretty unusual collection, some autographed CD's, some used stuff that still had that indy store's sticker on it, they knew I'd come a-lookin' for it & held it in the back room. While we were in the back debating what to do next in walks you-know-who to sell more. The record store guys stalled him a bit to give the cops time to get there. He was arrested right there & the cops let me rummage thru his truck where I found the PS2, most of the games & the DVD player. About half the DVD collection wasn't recovered. He went to state prison for 3 years (harsh cause of his prior record).

Definitely keep an inventory.


That's what I'm doing now.

Sorry about what happened to you Raw and Vital.

This is a particular fear for me as well.

nvm

I agree with quite a few people here - it was likely someone you know. My personal thought is that the ex may have had something to do with it, but that's just my initial thought.

It's obviously whom ever stole these from you knew you... They must have known that the certain DVD's they took were worth money. Do you recall bragging to anyone about them in the past? 9/10 when something is stolen it's from someone you know... Can you think of any coworkers or anyone you had over to your house very briefly that might have taken a gaze at your collection? The other senario is one of your room mates friends took them... Whom ever did it took time to take what they wanted. So they felt as if they didn't have to hurry. That's makes me believe they weren't afraid to get caught... Meaning they knew you were at work.
Considering they took rare items I don't think you'll find these at any pawnshops etc... I think the person who took these is going to keep them for their own collection.

i hope that rat was some drug kingpin`s sextoy for every single day of his 3 year sentence!! not that it is much satisfaction considering only half your collection was never recovered! if a tv, computer, etc. is stolen, it can be replaced from the insurance money, but these drug addict pieces of shit unfortunately don`t have any clue how much time, effort and heart go into a well assorted dvd collection!! of course i dont want to sound too superficial; it is more important that no bodily harm was done, as materialistic items can be replaced. well, unfortunately not! some dvds are seriously hard to replace. i have a collection of about 600, many limited ones with slipcases that are long out of print. if they were stolen i would probably say "sh## happens", collect the insurance money and convert directly to blu-ray. although i would still grief about the collection lost, which took a lot of time and effort!
coming from one of the safest cities in europe, i never had a break in in my native town, but lived abroad for some time, where my flat was broken into after only two weeks of staying there. yeah it was a shitty feeling that someone had gone through my stuff! luckily they only stole around 20 bucks worth of change lying around. really luckily because the only valuable piece i had there was an expensive rolex watch, that i was wearing on my wrist that night. still i did not feel comfortable sleeping there for a couple of nights and closed all the window blinders.
just for the principle i cannot handle people who value other peoples property!! not that i believe in strict arab laws, but as i have many friends living in countries like saudi arabia, you will hardly find theft. as hands of thieves are still cut off in public, you can even leave the ignition key in your car and no one will touch it. yes granted, that is definitely a bit harsh, but i am not a fan of all that scum that seems to be running around stealing either:)

Honestly sounds like kids. There was a group of dumbass teenagers in our neighborhood who were breaking into homes and stealing all the the spoons out of the house. That's it. Spoons.

They eventually caught them and they confessed they did it because they were bored.

Sadly, that's not until the next life...

I've been there, but not as huge a loss such as yours. Renter's insurance helps. Our company didn't need proof of this and that, or even photos. We have a deductible, but still got enough money to replace stuff. Luckily, not a collection of stuff that has been meticulously built over time. Sorry to hear it, man.

I'd be watching eBay too.

life is more about the journey than the destination. so whatever happens, you have a fresh start now.

i know, i know. best i can do!

Haha, don't hold your breath on them. eBay makes too much money off bootlegs and pirated stuff to care one whit.

Regarding renter's insurance, it's important to be aware of the specific exclusions that appear in your policy. Most rental insurance policies place severe and unrealistic caps on your recovery for commonly stolen items, such as jewelry and electronics. For instance, you might be covered for only the first $500 of any loss of jewelry. If the value of your stuff is greater than these caps, then you have to purchase additional coverage for it. Also, where there are no signs of forcible entry, some insurers might wave the "fraud" flag and delay the settlement of your claim while they "investigate" whether or not you had anything to do with the loss. (Not saying that OP is a fraud).