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STOLEN: VARIABLE PRIMES AND COOKE S4'S In NYC

dino g

dino g

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Hi everyone:

sad news to report from New York City.

We shot the first day of a two day Alicia Keys MV today and when we arrived on set and went to the Prod cube to get our lenses out, we noticed some were missing.

6 wide primes and 2 variable primes, 4 red batteries, 1 red batt charger and 1 640g red raid drive.

(ill get focal lengths later.)

we did a prep at hand held films and then the pa's came and picked up the gear. they parked the cubes in a lot in midtown and apparently they were broken into and those above referenced items were stolen.

good news is, they did not take my red or the other red (mine was with me, i never leave it in the prod cube or on set overnight).

apparently this is a happening a lot in manhattan.

just thought you would all like to know.

dino
 
Sorry to hear. Not your everyday person will have use for these things. Hopefully those who stole them have bad shooting experiences, even though the case of who stole them probably won't be the same who will shoot with them.

condolences,
 
Its really sad how many low lifes are out there stealing from hard working people. Come on and get a real job!!! It makes me sick having to worry whether my gear will get stolen or not. You spend all your hard earned cash on equipment for your craft and some unemployed idiot rips you off! We should just start carrying guns again Wild West style. I'm sure the crime rate would plunge drastically (rant concluded). Sorry to hear about your gear. Hope they find the people or person involved :emote_hanged:!
 
Midtown?
Please let me know what parking lot was that (I don't want 2Bda next 1).
 
dino g said:
good news is, they did not take my red or the other red (mine was with me, i never leave it in the prod cube or on set overnight).

dino
Click to expand...

Same here. Camera and drives stay with me. Too risky otherwise, even when there's good security. Red is about as hot as it gets in terms of video gear.

Had a couple of cameras stolen in Boston too.

Hope everything gets recovered and the culprits put away. I believe there are some sting operations happening or there were at one point. NYPD is well aware of the pattern.
 
Good News? Your RED is REPLACEABLE.

BAD News... The Vari-Primes are Impossible to replace economically and technically. and the worst thing... the idiot that took them forgot to take the third one.
 
Kwan Khan said:
Midtown?
Please let me know what parking lot was that (I don't want 2Bda next 1).
Click to expand...


Which parking lot? It is every lot in every major city in the world!

You never leave expensive gear in vehicles anywhere unless it is a secure lot with barbed wire and 24 hour guards that is specifically designed and marketed for protecting gear.
 
Brent J. Craig said:
You never leave expensive gear in vehicles anywhere unless it is a secure lot with barbed wire and 24 hour guards that is specifically designed and marketed for protecting gear.
Click to expand...

That's usually what is done when parking production vehicles in NYC; they go in a bonded lot. There's a bunch of them.
 
Yeah, heard about that, Dino. My AC Jay was with you... ;( Sounds like you guys scrambled and made the day anyway.
My condolences to Marc at Handheld. He's a nice guy, and not being the biggest rental house around, I'm sure that theft will hurt.
Just for clarification, there is NO SUCH THING as a "bonded" lot. And generally, PMs will defer to PAs about parking. So if there are a couple of lots that are better than others (and in NYC, as far as I know, there are only a handful: BAM, Lafayette Street garage, and two others in Manhattan) it doesn't really matter, since the PA will invariably say, "oh, I got a good one in my neighborhood; never had trouble" and the PM will let the PA park there nine times out of 10.
I also heard about a Smuggler job two weekends ago where the CUT INTO the side of a cube truck to gain access.
Having experienced a $100,000 + theft of camera gear two summers ago, I can tell you that it's a NIGHTMARE.
I swear, rental houses need to start insisting that ARMED GUARDS be present at all times. Don't know what else will prevent this from happening...
Cheers,
Harry
 
Having experienced a few thefts while I was in NYC... Never leave lenses in trucks overnight, if it is the same band of thieves they know what they are looking for and go right for the lenses. Lenses are the hardest items to replace and some sets are irreplaceable (i.e. Super Speeds)

I used to work at Hand Held and a lot of gear that was stolen did indeed end up in South America / Brazil. With confirmation that it was being sold there, but really nothing you can do unless you can catch it right away before it gets out of the country.

Everyone just needs to insist that lenses are locked up overnight, hopefully in a secure production office. A thin aluminum cube truck with a $14 dollar lock just isn't enough security for a $100,000 case.
 
Dave Edsall said:
....a $100,000 case.
Click to expand...

That's a great way to put it too. It's like a box with a $100K in cash sitting in it. Would you leave that in a truck hoping for the best?

I also understand the difficulty from the PMs side of things though. Logistics are not always easy to work out when it comes to moving lots of gear around and doing it at or under budget. What do you do about the $30K Weaver Steadman or the $15K O'connor 2575 system. oh, and you know the 3 monitors that are all $3K or more. Only so much you can bring home with you. Perhaps new camera trucks have to be engineered that are built like Brinks trucks. And maybe dedicated, armed drivers to transport camera gear around. It's unfortunate that we live in a world where greed, and disregard for other's possessions exists. But the reality is, unless production has a boatload of money to throw at the problem, the only other defense is common sense and as much precaution as possible.
 
theft picked the passenger side door through the lock (looked like a knife went through it); then went in through the door which goes through the cab, which btw most cubes do not have that pass through door anymore in la. they emptied a 6 whole wide prime case and then took two variable primes. also took 4 red batteries with 2 chargers and one red raid drive with an et shock mount. we made both our days and amazingly alicia keys worked 12 hours on set singing her ass off on each take, not lip syncing but singing full bore on each take and then got a police escort to yankee stadium and sang to open the 1st game of the series and then came back the next day (friday) and sang for 17 hours...amazing.

dino
 
dino g said:
theft picked the passenger side door through the lock (looked like a knife went through it); then went in through the door which goes through the cab, which btw most cubes do not have that pass through door anymore in la. they emptied a 6 whole wide prime case and then took two variable primes. also took 4 red batteries with 2 chargers and one red raid drive with an et shock mount. we made both our days and amazingly alicia keys worked 12 hours on set singing her ass off on each take, not lip syncing but singing full bore on each take and then got a police escort to yankee stadium and sang to open the 1st game of the series and then came back the next day (friday) and sang for 17 hours...amazing.

dino
Click to expand...

Incredible...
You are lucky Dino! Better than front row tickets!
 
Whenever I've worked on a large shoot that will leave cube vans sitting around, they've always left them at the location and hired a security company to keep an eye on them. A security guard in a marked car seems enough to deter thieves, and it's not an unreasonable expense given the hassle of replacing the gear in the middle of a shoot.
 
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