I came home from a business trip last night only to find that my house was vandalized and all of my A/V equipment is gone! (except my DefTech Trinity Sub - I guess it was too heavy...)

My Aerial LR5's - gone!
My LR5 stands - gone!
My 42" Sony LCD - Gone!
Over 120 DVD's - Gone!
Even my Audioquest cable are gone!

They took more than just my A/V stuff, but WTF? Been in LA for less than 2 months...

OUCH! You do have insurance, right?

What kind of AV gear did you have? And did you have an alarm on your house? My alarm company will pay for what is ripped if someone breakes in. :rolleyes:

Nightmare!

I did have insurance, but they wil never cover the cost of these speakers... I will get Some of it back, but defintely not all of it.

I did not have an alarm on my house. It's construction is still being completed for y room addition.

As far as electronics go... The only thing I am really going to miss is my new Arcam DV-139 DVD player. The other NAD stuff was old and I did not like it all that much anyway... but still... thats not the point!

Awww, crap. This sucks! I hope you get your theater back in order soon.

I think i may have to down scale it a bit this time.... Maybe I put too much money and effort into it. Think I can get the same performance for less $$?

I did have insurance, but they wil never cover the cost of these speakers... I will get Some of it back, but defintely not all of it.

I did not have an alarm on my house. It's construction is still being completed for y room addition.

As far as electronics go... The only thing I am really going to miss is my new Arcam DV-139 DVD player. The other NAD stuff was old and I did not like it all that much anyway... but still... thats not the point!

Who is doing the construction? Maybe they saw what you had and came back later.

Gee, having work done by outside contractors and a vandalized home.

The contractors work for the housing community I live in. They were the ones who called the police when they found th house was broken into on Saturday

Well, it could be that the contractors saw something and came back later with friends. Or, it could be a completely independent group of thieves that happens to know your neighborhood has multiple construction jobs going. It would be pretty hard to pin it down either way.

I'd certainly wait until the construction is finished and your alarm is fully functional before restocking, though.

As for whether or not your can spend less $$$ and get the same performance, I'd say that depends on how good an Audiogon shopper you are :) And of course as an objectivist I'd say you could spend more money on your components and less on your cables :)

Either way, I got screwed! I guess I will have to figure out how to get the same performance for my HT with less money... any ideas?

Start by upgrading your insurance policy to full replacement/no deductible for select items. Might need a rider.

Put in phony video cameras outside along with surveillance stickers and don't tell anyone.

Be more careful with the information you give out about yourself, even on forums.

Put in a real, hidden webcam in certain areas that's motion detector activated.

Then, do something.

With the price of DVRs and real cameras, there's no point in putting in fakes. Don't skimp on the DVR though, there's lots of cheapies out there being sold at discount prices that are as reliable as discount computers. Nothing like relying on a DVR, only to find out the hard drive crashed weeks ago...

That's been rampant around here as the security companies try undercutting each other to get the business...

I don't know what the budget would be, but I agree with you. A friend of mine, out in PA, has outdoor security cameras that record and went to the 'videotape' when he'd found his house and car egged. Knowing the people in the neighborhood, he went to the kid's father and told him to keep his kid on a tighter leash. The father caught an attitude and denied his kid's involvement. My friend turned the videotape over to the authorities.

Don't skimp on the DVR though, there's lots of cheapies out there being sold at discount prices that are as reliable as discount computersSo what brands are garbage and which ones are decent?

GK,

Was just looking over New Post and read your Thread.

This want change anything but I am Sorry to read of your Theft. :(

Hopefully with whatever your insurance company will pay and your own monies you can get back in the Game: :)

Good-Luck,

Terry Honaker

So what brands are garbage and which ones are decent?

The ones I've heard about are the 'custom' built ones by the local installation companies. They of course will make them out of the cheapest hardware possible to try and compete with tenders and people shopping for low prices. While I don't know stats, my reasoning is that the DVRs should be replaced every 4 years or so, ask a reputable installation company about expected life spans.

I used to be a Burtek dealer for audio stuff that also deals with a LOT of alarm/DVR items. (www.burtek.com). I always got pretty good no BS answers as to what equipment they sold was good and what was problematic.

It kills me when I hear about people (and corporations) shopping for the bottom dollar for alarm and security systems. "Yes, Mrs Smith, I'm sorry that your son got stabbed in our gas station last night and died. We tried to retrieve the information from our CCTV system about the perp, but the hard drive died last week".

GK,

Sorry this has happened to you. I have not had a break-in yet, but I did have a vehicle stolen from my driveway while I was home. It ends up being more than the property loss--someone has invaded your private, and thought to be secure space.

You are getting good suggestions here. Talk to the police and insurance company regarding future steps you can take to create a more secure atmosphere and discourage further break-ins. From the insurance standpoint, it may be worthwhile if there is premium discount for alarms, cameras, etc. You also do not want to have to file on insurance again, at least for awhile, or you could be dropped.

With you moving in a short time ago, your merchandise could have been scouted in a number of ways. When you do replace electronics, I would suggest disguising the boxes with bags or liners so labeling is not evident when you move them into home. It is probably worthwhile to take digital pictures or movies of your merchandise in your home along with recording serial numbers and keep in bank deposit box or off-site secure area. If they got a personal computer and you have bank, credit card info, social security etc. on them, you need to address that immediately. Same if they took paperwork that may have that on them.

Bluntly the whole process sucks. Though I am not a huge fan of some of our government actions, the concept of Rendition for these kind of characters becomes somewhat appealing.

Hang in there,
Will

Sorry to hear that. We got robbed two years ago, but somehow the thieves ran right upstairs and didn't see the basement theater space at all. Pretty unique stuff that got stolen though, check ebay and such regularly, and make sure you report the info to police and you may want to check out pawn shops, it would be hard to miss that kind of equipment.

Don't know what insurance you have but most allow for replacement value (if you chose such) to be used in replacing merchandise. I know if someone stole my $30K Qualia, I'd have $30K toward a new Titan DLP. Work with your insurance company, it may work to your favor.

I know if someone stole my $30K Qualia, I'd have $30K toward a new Titan DLP .

Bruno will do it for you........... ;) :D

Art

Do you have serial numbers for a lot of this stuff? It's low enough volume that watching the local pawn shops and ebay might set off a few triggers.

Also, a lot of bike companies keep registries of solen bike serials to check against. Does anything similar exist in the AV world?

my sister was robbed while in home remodeling construction, and as one suspected, it did turn out to be an inside job. I was robbed in college by a friend of someone who came to a party. It's just too tempting to suspect one or more of the workers who tell a friend of a friend and maybe sort of split the proceeds on the back end.

I would have a good hard talk with your contractors.... nobody cases a joint like someone who gets to walk around all day inside your house.

Why not invest $100 for an AT&T home monitoring system? It comes with a color camera that takes pictures when it detects motion and stores image somewhere on a AT&T server that can be d/l and printed. You can also view a live image on your cell from anywhere in the US. www.attrm.com.

Gina -

Were any other homes in your neighborhood broken into recently? Was your gear easily visible from outside the house (was it in a room on the ground floor)? Who knew that you were going to be out of town?

Don -

That AT&T system looks pretty neat. It's a very small investment that could pay off big.

I came home from a business trip last night only to find that my house was vandalized and all of my A/V equipment is gone! (except my DefTech Trinity Sub - I guess it was too heavy...)

My Aerial LR5's - gone!
My LR5 stands - gone!
My 42" Sony LCD - Gone!
Over 120 DVD's - Gone!
Even my Audioquest cable are gone!

They took more than just my A/V stuff, but WTF? Been in LA for less than 2 months...

My heart goes out to you. I hope you find the culprit(s), or at least can claim some of the losses somehow. It is a grim reminder that not everyone is trustworthy and that there are bad people in this world. :(

My parents place in Naples was broken into last year. A couple druggies broke in and lived in the house, which is in a gated community, for about a month. They stole everything. Car, TV's, Stereos, CD's, Furniture, they were even boxing up the cleaning supplies before they got run off. They would have gotten away with it too had it not been for a sheriff in Lousiana stopping some people arguing near a mini-van which just happened to belong to my parents. Finger prints matched and they arrested the guy that broke in.

Insurance companies have been a real pain about it though. They left the van in storage, with windows down, in Lousiana for a few weeks, during which the condition of the van went from fixable to utterly ruined. They're only offering $2500 to fix it, even though a Toyota dealer (it's a Toyota van) said it would need to be gutted.

Since the break in they installed a new security system will full time monitoring.

I came home from a business trip last night only to find that my house was vandalized and all of my A/V equipment is gone! (except my DefTech Trinity Sub - I guess it was too heavy...)

My Aerial LR5's - gone!
My LR5 stands - gone!
My 42" Sony LCD - Gone!
Over 120 DVD's - Gone!
Even my Audioquest cable are gone!

They took more than just my A/V stuff, but WTF? Been in LA for less than 2 months...

Sucks man. Hope you find out who did it, or re-gain your losses or atleast some of it.

Wanna sell the Trinity? I live in Huntington Beach, not too far. :D

I came home from a business trip last night only to find that my house was vandalized and all of my A/V equipment is gone! (except my DefTech Trinity Sub - I guess it was too heavy...)

My Aerial LR5's - gone!
My LR5 stands - gone!
My 42" Sony LCD - Gone!
Over 120 DVD's - Gone!
Even my Audioquest cable are gone!

They took more than just my A/V stuff, but WTF? Been in LA for less than 2 months...

GinaKim,

Post the serial numbers of your gear in this thread. You never know - they may show up on audiogon, ebay, craigslist, (even here).

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, and I hope you are able to recover from your losses :(

- Steve O.

So sorry to hear about the theft. It is a horrible feeling to be violated like that. If you find the strength to emotionally detach yourself from those possessions which are now gone, then you will have come out ahead in this ugly situation. Turn a negative into your positive. Easier said than done, but it is all in the mind.

The most likely place for you to find your stuff on the net if it's being sold is probably craigslist.

No doubt an inside job by someone you know...Is there anything else they took besides the HT stuff??

that really sucks

Awe man, that sucks :( Im paranoid about that stuff and told my insurance company to give me the best coverage they got. The peace of mind is worth it to me. Did you happen to write down the serial numbers of your gear? If you turned in your warranty slip to the manufacturer, perhaps they have it down on record for you?

I'm paranoid and almost never leave my room, so I have taken some precautions.

I have mutilated all my gear so the thieves won't be able to sell them. I have cut my Nordost Valhalla cables to pieces, scratched them, sliced open the outer shell etc. For my components I have burned down the plastic on the circuit boards and bent the pins to hardwire my Valhallas there. Outside the chassis I have scratches all over the place from dragging them on the floor. I don't have the top chassis screwed on so when the thieves come and try to lift it up the top cover comes open and they see the mess inside. Then they get scared and leave without taking anything with them...

I'm paranoid and almost never leave my room, so I have taken some precautions.

I have mutilated all my gear so the thieves won't be able to sell them. I have cut my Nordost Valhalla cables to pieces, scratched them, sliced open the outer shell etc. For my components I have burned down the plastic on the circuit boards and bent the pins to hardwire my Valhallas there. Outside the chassis I have scratches all over the place from dragging them on the floor. I don't have the top chassis screwed on so when the thieves come and try to lift it up the top cover comes open and they see the mess inside. Then they get scared and leave without taking anything with them...

I do something similar to scare off the potential thieves as well, but instead of ruining the equipment, I put a pack of rabid and feral dogs in my listening room. Now I listen to the music through the walls from an adjoining room, but I have the satisfaction of knowing my equipment can't be stolen.

I would rather welcome it. My policy is for placement value.....It'd be a forced, system wide upgrade. Titan PJ, here I come.

A replacement value insurance policy is the only way to go once your HT endeavors travel past your financial comfort zone.

Have pics & serial#s , upgrade status notes with oems, & info regarding cost all in a nice file if ever the need arises to inform your agent.

In my case, close proximity lightning strikes have twice moved settlements up to the 10k range. Some gear not affected at all, other stuff was not repairable.

Sorry to hear about this situation for the original poster.

Thieves are by there very nature lazy & this stuff will be put up for sale locally or they will make an odd phone call to obtain info on how to use what has been illegally obtained.

I'm paranoid and almost never leave my room, so I have taken some precautions.

I have mutilated all my gear so the thieves won't be able to sell them. I have cut my Nordost Valhalla cables to pieces, scratched them, sliced open the outer shell etc. For my components I have burned down the plastic on the circuit boards and bent the pins to hardwire my Valhallas there. Outside the chassis I have scratches all over the place from dragging them on the floor. I don't have the top chassis screwed on so when the thieves come and try to lift it up the top cover comes open and they see the mess inside. Then they get scared and leave without taking anything with them...

I simply put a picture of Mr. ValhallaPC outside the door to my home and that even scares my friends away!!!@@@

On a more serious note, I'm very sorry to hear about the theft. I was lucky, my initial home theater was in our basement, the house has great security alarm and cameras, and when I built a brand new room on for my dedicated home theater in 1997, I had all the alarm and cameras in place before I moved anything into the room.

That is why something like this is a small investment but a big piece of mind. Something that should be considered in the future. I use it also to see if UPS drops any goodies off.

Nothing worse than a $%#&%*! thief...

Hey Mike, who makes that. Seems pretty cool.

Hey Mike, who makes that. Seems pretty cool.


nuvico.com is the website, there is a distributor in Northridge, CA. It is pretty high quality and the only one that works with dynamic ISP. I have had this system for 4 years and only have to clean the lenses once in awhile.

Some parts of Long Beach suck :(

Mike C.... thanks for posting that. I can now find the exact location of your cameras and terminate their existence.



j/k, but you might reconsider posting screen snaps like that...:(

hey guys, it has been a while since i posted here as I have been a bit disgusted with this whole endeavor... anyway, let me give you an update. I got screwed out of quite a bit of money from the insurance company for my gear as it was bought second hand... even though I have the receipt from the shop I bought it at, they noted that it was not brand new, but demo equipment on my receipt... (for future reference, tryand get that off of your receipt if you can). I only got 62% of what I paid for ALL of my equipment, so i ma still out several thousand dollars.

The good news is, they caught the people who did it, but they will not be able to pay any reparations as the are mexican nationals... n0n-residents, if you know what I mean...
Also, my home owners agency has agreed to pay for a security system to be installed in my home with a video surveillance system, using motion secsors and a hard drive to back it all up. It will be going in tomorrow.

Now, what am I to do wit my HT now that I only have $15K for pre/pro, amp, and speakers...

Before I put anything new in the house, seeing as I think you said you travel a bit, I'd wait till the security cam is up, whatever work you're having done is completed, and you've looked into beefing up your homeowners insurance.

Out of curiousity, was there a link between the undocumented migrants who filched your gear and the people doing construction?

Anyone have any suggestions on good home surveillance video systems? My home is well alarmed, but I wouldn't mind investing in one of those video systems myself (even though they would have to break through the walls of my HT to get my equipment as I am using a double locked reinforced exterior door for the entry point to that room).

Queue, make sure you use commercial/industrial equipment. Those Costco/Radio Shack all in one systems are crap.

I think I stated above, if you use a DVR, make sure the unit is not one that's built by the security company, most likely they'll use cheapie parts to throw it together.

Manufacturers that I've used:
-Pelco
-National

One of the Canadian distributors that has a large selection up here:

http://www.burtek.com/products/items/cctv.htm

I'm sure you can source the same equipment in the US. Burtek does have US offices as well, not sure how much they carry though.

The Police should force them to reval where things were sold to / who, especially the larger items. also don't let the insurance co scam you, keep going up the chain, see where that goes.

Don't know what insurance you have but most allow for replacement value (if you chose such) to be used in replacing merchandise. I know if someone stole my $30K Qualia, I'd have $30K toward a new Titan DLP. Work with your insurance company, it may work to your favor.
Bruno will do it for you........... ;) :D
I'd be willing to help Jeff out as well, Jeff do you have an extra bulb?

.

The good news is, they caught the people who did it, but they will not be able to pay any reparations as the are mexican nationals... n0n-residents, if you know what I mean...

Where they involved in the repairs? Inside job? Here in the New Orleans area we have a lot of crime, almost none is from our friends from below the border that are helping the city rebuild but I watch everyone.Still I am always concerned anytime I let someone that I do not know in my home. The last major construction was adding another layer of drywall with Green Glue to the room. One of the drywall hangers, American, kept asking if I had surveillance? He said that his Sprint phone, had something that gave an alert if surveillance was present. Anyone ever heard of a mobile phone being able to detect surveillance? Sounded like BS to me. Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I have been burglarized before many years back. I have pictures and video of all of my stuff. If it is ever stolen, I do not intend to provide the insurance company any receipts. What I paid for it is not the issue, the value is. I never accept the first offer an insurance company makes ever. It is often a low ball.

Where they involved in the repairs? Inside job? Here in the New Orleans area we have a lot of crime, almost none is from our friends from below the border that are helping the city rebuild but I watch everyone.Still I am always concerned anytime I let someone that I do not know in my home. The last major construction was adding another layer of drywall with Green Glue to the room. One of the drywall hangers, American, kept asking if I had surveillance? He said that his Sprint phone, had something that gave an alert if surveillance was present. Anyone ever heard of a mobile phone being able to detect surveillance? Sounded like BS to me. Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I have been burglarized before many years back. I have pictures and video of all of my stuff. If it is ever stolen, I do not intend to provide the insurance company any receipts. What I paid for it is not the issue, the value is. I never accept the first offer an insurance company makes ever. It is often a low ball.

Bulldogger, that drywall hanger is lookin' for places to steal from, whether to do it by himself or for someone else.

A Sprint phone that gaver al alert if suveillance was present. That's the clue. Of course there ain't no such thing. And as a though a simply drywaller would know all the vagaries of modern technology. He was trying to find out about your security. Our security company has warned us to look out for these types of scams. And from my life's experiences I know enough to quickly spot a scammer.
I would contact the contractor's President/Manager and file a complaint that the employees was asking about security making you very suspicious and that in consideration of that you and your friends would never hire that contractor again; and that you are notifying the police just in case a string of burglaries have one thing in common - that contractor.

i work in construction and can tell you houses "under construction" are getting broke into QUITE often....more then you think

its getting more common to have a new house broke into and they steal anything copper from wire to gas lines (pretty gutsy losers) and if its far enough along the appliances....its pretty obvious when a house isn't being lived in

some of our contractors starting putting up fake camera's in hopes of scaring them off....they do work pretty well.

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