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Post subject: PROTECT YOUR GEAR PLAN!
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:56 pm
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Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:12 pm
Posts: 6355
Location: Albemarle, NC
Screaming Stone and Biggy recently were talking in a post about their basses being stolen. This is like someone kidnapping a family member.

The following ideas come too late to help them this time. But would help anyone at some unfortunate time in the future. Times are getting tough in the USA right now. If you don't think people exist who would boost your gear if they could get to it, you are wrong.

Based on my personal experience in the event of any catastrophic incident, theft, fire or whatever there are things an insurance adjuster will want to know. In the case of theft there are things the police want to know. Some of this information is the same.

First and foremost, both the police and probably the insurance people will want serial numbers. The FBI/NCIC nationwide HOTFILES database is where serial numbers of stolen articles are stored indefinitely. If you have serial numbers they can be entered in the database and when the police runs the serial through the NCIC database the item will return as stolen and show which police agency is looking for it. The locating agency then contacts the agency that entered the article in the system and the entering agency will contact the owner. The owner can then make arrangements to recover his article. This is your best shot at ever getting your gear back. I personally know of a stolen handgun found 28 years after being entered as stolen in NCIC!

The second thing that helps with insurance claims are photos. Also NCIC has already enabled photo entry for a few categories like stolen motor vehicles and wanted persons, so even if the police can't use your photos right now they will have a use for your photos in the near future. They can be digital or standard photo prints but digital are best.

The third thing is an OWNER APPLIED NUMBER (OAN.) An OAN can be used to enter an item stolen in the NCIC HOTFILES database in the absence of a serial number. For example on instruments you've modified so they no longer have a serial or on ones that never had a serial in the first place, you can have your driver's license etched onto the metal neckplate at a local trophy shop. It should include your state abbreviation, followed by "DL" and then your drivers license number. It should be visible without removing anything. For an example of a good owner applied number, here in North Carolina I'd suggest something like "NCDL1234567." Any police officer knows that is probably a driver's license number from NC and can track you down from anywhere in the USA with just your license number even if the item isn't entered NCIC. Many people think Social Security Numbers are the thing to use for an OAN, however law enforcement has NO WAY to track down Social Security numbers unless they are entered in NCIC's stolen article file as the Owner Applied Number. So I suggest using your drivers license instead as they are much more easily traced than a Social. Just make sure to put the state abbreviation at the beginning.

The fourth suggestion is to place hidden marks on your gear. Under the pickguard or neckplate or in the pickup cavity on guitars and on the bottom of cabs, heads, or combos. They don't have to be big, just so you can read them. Again use the OAN like NCDL1234567. This way you can positively identify your gear from any other otherwise identical item. You might see your bass being played at a local club, but you can't prove to the police that it is your bass. However when you tell the officer to look under the pickguard for your own driver's license number...well you'll get it back most likely.

Now my BEST idea. Here is how to keep track of it all. Type up a master list of all your current gear. List the Make, Model, Serial/OAN, Price Paid, Acquisition Date, Source, and anything else you can think of in an email. Then email this list to your own Webmail account at Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or wherever. Keep this file forever. Update it when you get new gear or sell old gear and then email the updated list to yourself again. You can also email scans of sales receipts to yourself and then email the photos of your gear and receipt scans to this same Webmail account. If you have a lot of photos put them in a free Photobucket account.

If you take a little time to do this right now, then no matter where you are in the world, even on tour, you can just log into your Webmail and Photobucket to get all our gear serials, descriptions and photos for the Police and insurance companies.

Even if you do everything that I suggest your chance of getting stolen gear back might be slim, but you will have a better chance than no chance at all which is basically the situation your are in without serial numbers to enter in NCIC. You'll certainly have less of an argument and possibly a higher settlement from the insurance company too with good orderly information and serials.

Rich people used to hire people to come in and catalog their things, then store the photos and descriptions in a safe deposit box. Later videos for the same purpose became popular. I'm pretty much suggesting musicians do the same thing, only do it electronically.


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