Got insurance?? You better...

[jheiliger]

Hi Everyone,

I photographed a huge wedding last night (yeah, a Friday night wedding...)!! There was fun, food, and drink enough for everyone!!

I got home at 2:00am last night. I came into the house, got undressed, and was climbing into bed. My wife says, "Did you bring your camera in??". I huffed at her because she is the "door locking nazi" in our family (i think every family has one...), and I was EXTREMELY tired! I said "No", and put some shorts on and ran out to the truck and grabbed my main camera bag. I left the rest in the truck... Climbed into bed and slept like a baby.

I had a client meeting at the studio this morning at 9:00am. I got in my truck at 8:00am, and the rest of my equipment was GONE!!

Someone broke into my truck, and stole my laptop, my lights, and all my back-up Camera equipment. All told, it's $4K - $5K worth...

THANK GOD... I have insurance (and my bride's pictures)... do you??


Don't get caught with your pants down...

Joe

Edit: Not my lights... they left my lights... they only grabbed what was easy. My bags.

[JohnT]

Wow! Sorry to hear this. Very good thing you have insurance. I guess my paranoia pays off. I never leave my gear in my truck unless it's just my camera, which I'll shove under the seat.

[Schlegel]

Wow, I have had the same thing happen to me, but they got everything.

I had a shoot later in the evening and brought my gear with me to a lunch meeting. When I got back to the truck (1:20pm), it was all gone. Less then 45mins!! And to top it off, it was a brand new truck (less then 1k miles), now the door is damaged and all my gear was stolen. I am still trying to replace everything that I had. Even with the insurance, I am having problems.

DO NOT KEEP YOUR GEAR IN YOUR VEHICLE AT ANY TIME.

Troy

[Killeenguy]

i'm glad u have insurance...other wise i would of thought of this almost horrible story for ever...who do u have insurance with if you don't mind me asking?

[haraki74]

Yeah, some insurance sources would be nice if you don't mind.

[Tracy Hicks]

Where is a good place and what about prices on just the equipment? Home owners would cover it if its stolen from your vehicle minus a huge deductable correct?

[zeroendless]

Sorry to hear that, i recently fully insured all my gears covered from A-Z, worldwide. No deductable. All state.

[ndsimm]

sorry to hear about the loss, but what are you gonna give your wife for "nagging" you in the first place? otherwise, you would have lost everything....she doesn't seem like the "I told you so" type.....but a nice "thank you for nagging me" treat would be nice.....

[Daniel Bates]

I don't have insurance yet. But as soon as I buy an SLR--that very day, I promise--I'm going to get insured. I can absorb a $500 loss right now, since I'm not shooting any paying gigs yet, but if I ever do...

[msthomas]

You should be happy for a nagging - door locking wife that got you out of bed. She saved your ....
Since I still do this as a hobby, I think and I know that is a bad habit but old habits are hard to break, I think my home owners insurance covers most of it.
That might be a phone call on Monday.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

First thing on paying gigs is to take into the house/pffice/studio the media that the shots are on, man if the camera with the bridal work was stolen you would have been out more than the gig pay since she would have sued you for whatever emotional grief that she had experianced for not having any wedding pics. Product shoots or model shoots may be recreated at additional expense but Weddings are a one time deal, kinda like vehicle crashes, fires and riots and you better be sure that the media that the shots are on is SECURE!

Sorry to hear about the loss but no matter how tired you are you need to haul your gear inside, locking in the trunk just means that they just have to break into the car and use the trunk release or pull down a foldable back seat to get to the gear. Thieves don't care about the cost of you replacing a window in your vehicle just more about any noise from an alarm that may draw attention to them.

With digital SLR's more common they are now easier to pawn off even at legit pawn shops vs a few years ago when they were rare and stood out but then that just meant dealing with crooked pawn shops are fences.

[Bill]

Sorry about the hit, not to mention the disturbance of domestic tranquility. Hope you have good backups for your laptop.

To the semi-pros: Don't assume coverage by homeowners for two reasons. If camera equipment is not scheduled, coverage may max out very low, just like computer stuff and jewelry. Secondly, business equipment may not be covered. Read the policy.

A lot of people in New Orleans thought they had coverage, were told not to worry about it, but when push came to shove, the underwriters were not as understanding or lenient as they expected.

[LadyShutterBug]

First thing on paying gigs is to take into the house/pffice/studio the media that the shots are on, man if the camera with the bridal work was stolen you would have been out more than the gig pay since she would have sued you for whatever emotional grief that she had experianced for not having any wedding pics.

always, ALWAYS have a clause in your contract talking about what you are liable for. mine states that under no circumstance am i liable for any amount over and above what they have paid me, in the event of loss/damage to the pictures or digital media.



insurance: by becoming a member of the PPA you can get good insurance through the Marsh agency. i't snot terribly expensive, either.

locking doors, etc:
i never, NEVER leave my equipment in the car, never. it's too much $$$ worth of stuff in one easy-to-steal bag. my camera bodies (with a lens on each one) travel in one bag, and the lenses, chargers, batteries, etc. travel in a backpack. if i so much as go into a convenient store, that camera-body bag comes with me, no exceptions. it's just too much to risk.

i had my tv/dvd stolen out of my Navigator, IN MY DRIVEWAY. I don't leave anything of value in the car, even when I am home for the day and going back out for an appointment later. the memory cards are hte first thing I take out of the bags, i unload them to the hard drive ASAP.

[jheiliger]

Thanks all you guys for posting... I am just really thankful that it wasn't worse!

Quick follow ups...

Lady Shutterbug - I also have a clause in my contract that states that I am limited in liability to what they paid me for the wedding. Even if you had to go to court for something like this, the PPA's indemnification Trust would go to bat for you to provide lawyers, and cover any settlement costs.

Problems with "home owners" add on policies:

1) If you are using your equipment in a business application, they will not cover you.

2) If you leave the country with your equipment, you are not covered.

For you guys that were wondering about insurance. Before I joined the PPA, I got insurace through NANPA (http://www.nanpa.org/). It is relatively inexpensive, and it is good coverage. I still have my policy with them through August, and will continue my coverage through the PPA after that. It is REALLY inexpensive, especially if you ever have to use it. I think I pay like $300 a year for $20,000 worth of coverage.

On a side note... It was someone elses experience on this forum that made me get insurace coverage on my equipment. I can't remember who it was, but someone had a "Smash and Grab" done to them at a convention and posted it here. Because of them sharing that experience, I went out the next week and purchased insurance. I'm so glad I did... I spent $350 on my policy, but it is about to pay me $5000.

I consider myself extremely fortunate....

Joe

[Elsaspet]

Bummer! I was at Competive Camera buying some stuff, and the owner told me a wedding photog recently came in because his house burned down right before a wedding and torched all his stuff. Had to go to the owner's house. Anyhoo, the owner came to the shop in the middle of the night and opened it up so he could loan the photog stuff he needed for the next day's wedding.