So last night at 1 in the morning, I got a call from a colleague who is listed as first-contact if an alarm goes off at our photostudio. She asks if I know anything about it, I answer no and get back to bed.
This morning I step into the studio as the first person, and notice all doors are wide open - Something we never leave open inside, because its cold as heck. Another colleague arrives, and it turns out someone broke in through one of our doubledoors by prying it open with force; which shouldn't have been possible, but apparently was. The alarm trips at 01:03, and security arrives at 01:25 to disable the alarm and close the gate again.
The unnerving thing about all of this is that they went very specifically after highly priced items, that you wouldn't normally necessarily assume were highly priced. Cameras (2 worth 100000DKK each) and video cameras (2 worth 350000DKK each) are a no duh, but things like little plastic boxes with load balancing calculators (for figuring out kiloton load on constructions) that aren't heavy, and a very plastic-looking video mixer worth almost 250000DKK stolen, next to a much cheaper one worth only 50000DKK that looks more fancy...
I count stolen goods worth approximately 1 million DKK, which were small enough for a single person to carry in the two camera bags he stuffed everything into (ours, gone from studio) and the video mixer which had a handle you can carry it in. Thats 177,547USD. The person literally took every single high-value, light-weight item in our entire studio; things from different rooms, some placed in obscure areas. I'm not police, but this was either an inside job or an ordered job from someone who hired someone with extreme knowledge of highly priced photo, TV and movie equipment (and even event rigging equipment, the load balancing equipment stolen).
Scary :/
Thankfully, all the heavier stuff would have required a car and we have a huge iron gate that you'd need to cut through with a welder or similar to open the padlock off.
I guess we'll see what the police do about this, although my guess is zilch; financial crisis = the suck. On another note, blah at someone breaking into our studio on my birthday. Whats up with that? | |
Was it at least insured? I know insurance rarely gets you back 100%, but they can be damn handy for getting back on your feet after a major hit.
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Wow that sounds too well planned to be some random kid breaking in.
How does this effect your job? | |
All of our photo equipment is ensured and we have serial numbers written down and registered (Canon f.ex, ask you to register your S/N's on their website, for this sort of thing); unfortunately not so on the Anycast mixer, but we should still be able to get something back on it.
Re Xuiryus: It doesn't affect my job much, except to make today a relatively shitty day; it does however become somewhat of a problem, because our one gate is now dislodged slightly at the bottom, making it impossible to shut completely. This means, in theory, someone could waltz in tonight and do the same thing; I'm not sure what we're doing to prevent that, but I think we're considering moving a container out in front of it so its completely impossible to get at that gate. The other one we have is armed with a locking mechanism on the inside which both prevents the gears from turning unless you pull a lever on the inside, and also has a metal lock on the side you have to pull off on the inside. They tried getting in there first (there are visible marks from what looks to be bashing with a crowbar), and then presumably gave up on that one. | |
Is there no CCTV or anything like that? No way to identify the people who broke in?
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No, we don't have CCTV set up here; its rather expensive, and we're a small company. The entire place is rigged with motion sensor alarms and doors use chip access; however, the room in question with cameras / video cameras is accessible from the other side if you rip down a carpet, which they did. And the AV equipment we have stored is currently not locked up in any way; the place is very new and we're still building things to support that sort of thing.
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Sounds like an inside job hey, probably somebody you work with had some gambling debts ;).
That does suck though, I hope that doesnt affect you any. | |
um... Happy Birthday?
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I've often feared someone breaking in and stealing things from our office, but our risk is much harder to measure. They could steal everything that isn't bolted to the ground and probably not get $100,000 worth of physical items, but stealing the server would allow for an incalculable amount in damages from identity theft and lost data.