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Protect
Your Gear!
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 the
information each entity wants 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 JPG images 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 gear
that never had a serial in the first place, you can have your driver's license
number etched onto the metal neckplate at a local trophy shop or jeweler or onto
the chassis of an amp. It should include your state abbreviation, followed by
"DL" and then your drivers license number. An OAN 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 number 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 by law enforcement than a Social Security number.
Just make sure to put the state abbreviation at the beginning followed by DL.
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 stolen 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 and the person
playing your bass will have some explaining to do to the police.
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 and then delete the old list. 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
is still slim, but you will have a better chance than no chance at all which is
basically the situation you are in without serial numbers or OAN's for the
police 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, serials and photos.
Rich people used to hire people to come in and catalog their things, then stored
the photos and descriptions in a safe deposit box. Later videotaping for the
same purpose became popular. I'm pretty much suggesting musicians do the same
thing, only do it online electronically. No matter where you are in the
world, if you can get to the Internet you can get to this information stored on
your webmail and online photo hosting. I suggest this for all items of
value with serials like watches, cameras, guns and electronic items.
Having the serial number or an Owner Applied Number is the ONLY way you will
ever have any chance of getting your item back short of the extremely unlikely
possibility of seeing it somewhere yourself, beating the person who has it
unconscious and taking your stuff back!
Finally to protect YOURSELF,
when you buy USED gear somewhere, it is a good idea to have the serial checked
to make sure it is not entered in NCIC as a stolen item. To do this all
you need is the article TYPE, MAKE, MODEL and either SERIAL or the OWNER APPLIED
NUMBER. Contact your local police agency (using a NON-emergency line)
during regular business hours 9 till 5 Monday through Friday and ask how you can
get your newly acquired used gear checked to make sure it is "clean." If
you unknowingly buy stolen gear the following scenario is entirely possible.
You get stopped for speeding by police on the way to a gig and the traffic cop
sees several guitar cases and other gear in your vehicle. You are from out
of town. This all looks very suspicious to the officer. This leads
to him running the serial on your gear and this is when you will find out one of
the items is stolen. In my state possession of stolen goods may land you
in jail. Your state laws may vary. With so many used instruments
bought and sold on eBay and moving state to state or country to country the
possibility of buying stolen gear exists. Most stolen gear isn't entered
as stolen in the law enforcement computer network, because the owner can't give
the police the serial numbers.
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