Is TV camera theft more or less prevalent now than it was in the '90s?

[tarzan]

Back around 1994 or so, I remember reading something in News Photographer Magazine that said that on average, 60 TV cameras are stolen each year in the United States. I remember hearing about one Dallas photog who was the victim of a smash-n-grab when she was inside a fast food restaurant for just 5 minutes, and during the OKC bombing, I think about 5 in total got stolen from various sat trucks during the international press coverage of that event.

But nowadays I hardly ever hear about this at all. I went to NPPA.org and entered "TV camera thefts" in their own Web site's internal search field, and it yielded no results. If I do a google search with those words, or other variations of that phrase, the only internet articles that come up are things like "thieves caught on camera stealing TV sets..." -But I'm finding NOTHING on the World Wide Web about television broadcast cameras actually being stolen.

I'm wondering if some of you can shed some light on this. Maybe now that most news vehicle windows are tinted, it's harder to just shatter the glass to get to the camera and make a run for it? Maybe the overall cost of quality video cameras has gone down so much that whatever the thieves were using them for back then, it's not that expensive anymore to just buy a camera at Best Buy if they really want to make porn? (Yeah that was one theory I heard floating around, that the thieves were using the stolen cameras to make porn, which I thought was silly and baseless).

Or maybe it is just as prevalent as it was in the '90s or more so, and I should remain just as vigilant as ever? I'm still not ambitious enough to build my own lock box (I still think that's something TV stations should be in charge of doing, not me), but I do regularly secure my camera with a cable bike lock to at least slow a thief down.

 

[Run&Gun]

Probably because so many local stations have switched to using 'Best Buy Handycams' and they're not worth stealing. Back in the day, your average TV camera was upwards of $50K-$70K (at least) and there was a huge black-market for them. Now the cameras are worth… Well, a few grand at best and probably not much of a black-market, because it's not worth it.

 

[The Thing on The Sticks]

It still happens but from where I sit I see them falling into two categories, the crime of convenience. i.e. some guy sees your camera and decides to try and grab it when you are not looking or strong arm you for it like in Oakland. In these the guys doing the stealing are likely not professionals or at least part of the professional camera theft outfits we used to see. They are looking for a quick score and don't know how much stuff is worth or have old values from ten or more years ago floating vaguely in their heads.

The 2nd category that you often don't hear about as much these days is the professional job. The ones that come to mind are 1 part smash and grab and 1 part professional heist, and these guys know exactly what to take. So this category can be a bit of a mixed bag, there have been a couple of watch your stuff e-mails that have done the rounds through the local producers association as a few of the local equipment sellers have been hit. Then there is the dark stuff that you only hear about through the grapevine like the production company that lost several ARRI Alexia cameras in something like 5 minutes one night about 2 years ago.

So yes the professional outfits are still around but the real question is are they still targeting crews or tending to limit their activity to assets in a fixed location. That said I am interested in how things are other places as I usually find my stuff a lot less likely to be stolen here in Texas than say when I worked in the North East.

 

[tarzan]

Back in the day, your average TV camera was upwards of $50K-$70K (at least) and there was a huge black-market for them.

That's the part I never understood: Who were the buyers in this black market? You couldn't have sold them in a pawn shop, they're not like typical consumer electronics, so who would actually buy a stolen camera?

 

[1911A1]

I had my camera (BVP-5 with a -5 back) stolen out of my news unit while it was parked in the station parking lot in broad daylight.

I'd like to think the old girl spent the rest of her life shooting porn in Mexico or South America.

 

[Run&Gun]

That's the part I never understood: Who were the buyers in this black market? You couldn't have sold them in a pawn shop, they're not like typical consumer electronics, so who would actually buy a stolen camera?

I heard there were rings of pro's who would basically go "shopping" in bigger markets with lists of gear and most of it would go back to South America/Latin America/Mexico.

But yes, there are still 'crimes of opportunity' happening. I remember a few years ago when we were in Vegas(NASCAR), some dumb, drunk fan grabbed one of the self contained RF cameras(ENG Cam with Tx on the back) that Sprint Vision used and took off running with it, not really having the cognitive ability to understand that when the camera and Tx were ON that they could see exactly where he was going. Ended with him being tackled by the op and arrested.

Most normal people really have NO IDEA how much our "real" stuff costs. I remember standing outside a hotel one morning waiting on the valet to bring my truck around and a couple started talking to me and the guy was asking me some of the standard questions: how much does the camera weigh, how much does it cost, etc. It was my tape VariCam & HD W/A. I told him "roughly 75". His eyes got a little wide and said something like $7500 is a lot. His eyes got even wider when I told him that wasn't enough zero's.

 

[Run&Gun]

I had my camera (BVP-5 with a -5 back) stolen out of my news unit while it was parked in the station parking lot in broad daylight.

I'd like to think the old girl spent the rest of her life shooting porn in Mexico or South America.

Lol… That's what my friends used to say about my production gear that got stolen back in '06. "It's making porn in Mexico…".

 

[tarzan]

Lol… That's what my friends used to say about my production gear that got stolen back in '06. "It's making porn in Mexico…".

I guess I hadn't thought much about porn production in poor developing countries. Also, maybe for child porn? I wonder what the laws are in general about making and distributing porn in Latin American countries. Never thought about it much, but then again I don't think I've ever seen porn that comes from Latin America. Most of the non-U.S. porn I've seen is from Europe. (Sorry if that's TMI, you can probably tell that I've watched a good amount of porn in the course of my adult life, hehe...)

When I first heard the theory "they're using it to make porn," I thought, wait a minute: The porn industry is a multimillion dollar industry, they have plenty of money to buy their own gear, why would they need to steal it? And at least as far as mainstream porn is concerned, well, I've heard there's a lot of regulation of it in LA, mainly to make sure none of the onscreen actors are underage, but overall making porn is legal, it's not like cooking and trafficking meth.

 

[tarzan]

I had my camera (BVP-5 with a -5 back) stolen out of my news unit while it was parked in the station parking lot in broad daylight.

WOW! I actually had to google that to refresh my memory of what a BVP-5 is! I remember working with 3/4-inch and envying anyone who had a BVP-5, and thinking I'd really hit the big leagues when I finally got to work with one myself. Now they're museum pieces.

 

[Necktie Boy]

I believe equipment gets stolen now, but as many have mentioned, the value has decreased. I think it the robbers are looking for certain type of equipment. Or the robbers just get lucky and hit the right truck.

The quality of handy cams are have gotten better and cheaper. And some news station use them.

As for selling out of a van, a former co-worker knew where to get stuff if I wanted it. This was south of the border. I did ask who bought the hot equipment. He said guys that needed professional equipment. I never asked again.

 

[1911A1]

WOW! I actually had to google that to refresh my memory of what a BVP-5 is! I remember working with 3/4-inch and envying anyone who had a BVP-5, and thinking I'd really hit the big leagues when I finally got to work with one myself. Now they're museum pieces.

I started on 3/4" as well.

The first time I saw a -5, it was only the camera head cabled to a 3/4" deck and I marveled at how "small" the camera body was. LOL

A couple of years ago I rescued a -5 camera front and J13 lens (along with a Sony 300A) that our engineers were going to toss in the dumpster. I picked up a -5 deck off evilBay for $25 and now they and the old JVC tube camera/3/4" deck combo make nice conversation pieces in my home office.

A few years ago I took the 3/4" rig to the office and most of the staff were stunned at how...primitive...it was. LOL

 

[tarzan]

As I mentioned earlier, I can't seem to find any articles on this subject online, even on NPPA.org. Anyone else have any luck with that? I'm just curious as to whether anyone's recently tabulated any official stats on this that can be compared/contrasted to back in the mid-90s.

 

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Yeah, back in the BetaCam days, the word was most of the stolen cameras were ending up in South America. Brazilian TV was often mentioned. No guess as to how much truth there was in it.

 

[LostInSpokane]

Tarzan, there is this page online with links to articles about camera thefts. Dunno how helpful it'll be though

http://www.newsphotog.com/bib/bib_171.html

 

[code20photog]

I would thikn pro-sumer cameras are much more appealing to thieves, easier to sell or use instead of full size ENG cameras.

 

[svp]

Just from a logical standpoint, I'd think it would be more common today because as cameras have gotten cheaper, more consumers have pro cameras, meaning it would be easier for a criminal to move or resell stolen cameras without raising suspicion. Just my two cents.

 

[The Thing on The Sticks]

Yes I remember hearing stories over the years where somebody would walk up to a live truck with a gold mount brick and ask "how do you charge one of these."