Theft of kit while loading in

[Steve_nottm]

I guess I’m lucky this hasn’t happened sooner but after 20 years of gigging I’ve had the first instance of stuff being nicked.

 

carting things into a venue you tend to leave cars/vans open until you’re all in, then lock them up.  We did that and I dropped a half empty gig bag in the back of the van.

 

come to get it after finishing and no sign (along with an empty guitar case and a monitor speaker).

 

luckily only spare cables, mics, stands, that kind of thing but still annoying!  And a lesson to be extra careful.

Edited Sunday at 21:43 by Steve_nottm

[Rich]

Sadly, there are some properly low-life thieving scumbag W⚓s around. Commiserations. 

[Maude]

It's no help now, but we always do a kind of relay where one person is always in attendance at the car, even at quieter locations. It just takes one opportunist walking past and a thousand pound guitar is gone in seconds. 

[Lozz196]

Not good, fortunately not too much of a loss monetary wise. I never leave my vehicle unlocked when loading in/out if on my own, but prefer to do the relay thing where the vehicle is never unattended whenever there’s anything in it. Similarly I also like someone on guard with the gear in the venue.

[Dan Dare]

Bad luck. Having lived all but the last three years of my life in The Smoke, I'm extremely wary of tea leaves and always lock the vehicle even if I'm only leaving it for a very short while. Now I've retired to a rural location and many of my gigs are in nice places, it's probably a bit OTT, but better safe than sorry.

 

I'm with Lozz and Maude. Have one in the venue and one keeping an eye on the vehicle when loading in and out.

[AndyTravis]

I tend to take guitars/basses in first, lock the car. Our drummer is always first in - and his

wonderful other half sits in the car as he does this.

 

I then load my amp in.

 

My pedalboard is tiny and lives in my lead/strings/capo bag.

In 28 years of gigging I’ve left behind a stool and a guitar stand…my own fault.

 

An old keys player interrupted a bloke sifting through our gear once - he ran off with an acoustic bass…I’d pulled the same acoustic bass out of a skip a month earlier so I wasn’t overly wounded by that.

 

[PinkMohawk]

Yeah, back when my old band were gigging, the van was never left unattended at any point during the load-in. At least one of us with the van at all times. Of course, didn't help when the cheeky twats broke in overnight, though they didn't clear us out much either. 

[Dad3353]

For those with pedal boards, Fx, Class-D amps, cables, mics etc... Use an accordion case for all of that stuff. No-one will nick that. 

 

...

 

Probably. 

[Burns-bass]

6 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

For those with pedal boards, Fx, Class-D amps, cables, mics etc... Use an accordion case for all of that stuff. No-one will nick that. 

 

...

 

Probably. 

Very good.

[Downunderwonder]

Nec week on TalkPolka;

 

"Some fecker stole my accordion case and left the accordion, what depraved fecker would do that?" 

[Muzz]

I had an old Cortina Estate (yeah, that dates this one) which was on its last legs: the next MOT was never an achievable dream, so, with it being well insured, I took to leaving it unlocked (with old Fords this was pretty much the same as locking it) when I was in Manchester city centre clubbing in the hope someone would nick it and I'd make money on the insurance. The best thing about it was the gear knob, which was made from a pool ball. I came back to it one night and the door was open...you can guess what was gone. I was gutted.