PERG News: February 2017

| PERG News: February 2017 |

A YEAR OF RECOVERIES

In 2016 RENTAL GUARD, and the efforts of NYPD and others, contributed to ten equipment recoveries worth roughly $1.4 million. The story of how these recoveries were made is amazing—and informative. Read more…

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Would your company like to help sponsor one of PERG’s 2017 events. We still have spots open. Read more…

ATLANTA RENTAL HOUSE DINNER
On the evening of January 25th over seventy individuals from Atlanta rental companies and vendors attended the PERG Atlanta Rental House Dinner. Read more…

IN MEMORIAM
James Pope, co-owner of Schumacher Camera in Chicago was killed in a traffic accident over the year-end holidays. Read more…

LESSONS LEARNED: PRECAUTIONS WHEN BUYING EQUIPMENT
It has got to be a bad feeling to buy equipment and then find out the equipment you purchased is stolen gear. Since good title cannot be transferred from a thief, the purchaser is out their money. Read more…

DON'T GET CAUGHT IN THE STOLEN EQUIPMENT TRAP
In 2016 alone, a total of $8,757,818 of professional motion picture camera equipment was reported stolen. This means individuals purchasing equipment on the used market are at risk of finding themselves in possession of stolen goods. Read more…

PERG COUNCIL NEWS
On January 26^th the PERG’s Executive Council held its first strategy meeting of 2017. In the coming months, PERG is looking forward to announcing a number of new and exciting initiatives and events to take place in 2017. Read more…

Atlanta Rental House Dinner 2017

| PERG News: February 2017 |

On the evening of January 25th over seventy individuals from Atlanta rental companies and vendors attended the PERG Atlanta Rental House Dinner. The event was hosted by PC&E and sponsored in part by Citation Support (Nashville), Litegear (Los Angeles) PC&E (Atlanta), and The Camera House (Los Angeles). PERG Council Chair, Derek Hammer (Hammer Lighting & Grip) served as the MC for the evening, which featured a brief presentation, updating attendees on ongoing and proposed PERG initiatives. 

Lori Rubinstein announced a new aspect of the Behind the Scenes charity. The new program helps pay for long-term counseling for individuals who may be at risk for suicide or are fighting substance abuse. Rubinstein showed quotes from several film crew members who have received grants from Behind the Scenes when they were sick or injured, expressing their gratitude.

Sponsorship Opportunities

| PERG News: February 2017 |

Would your company like to help sponsor one of PERG’s 2017 events? We still have spots open to sponsor the PERG General Membership Meeting at NAB, the Cine Gear Rental House Breakfast at Paramount Studios, and the PERG/AICP Oktoberfest Party in New York. Learn more about PERG events.

Don’t Get Caught in the Stolen Equipment Trap

| PERG News: February 2017 |

In 2016 alone, a total of $8,757,818 of professional motion picture camera equipment was reported stolen. This means individuals purchasing equipment on the used market are at risk of finding themselves in possession of stolen goods. There have been several recent incidents where people found themselves in this position and had no choice but to return the equipment to the rightful owner at a significant personal loss. A person who tries to sell such equipment could be guilty of a felony.

RENTAL GUARD is the equipment rental community’s response to the theft epidemic. It is an online database and alert system for missing gear. Its purpose is to make it harder to sell stolen gear, and easier to catch someone doing so. It helps catch the bad guys, but other people can sometimes get caught in the trap too.

Please follow these precautions when buying equipment:

• Before purchasing equipment, get the serial numbers and check them on the RENTAL GUARD database. This is a free industry service. Also check with the equipment manufacturer.
• Know the person or company you are buying equipment from and make sure they have a return policy that allows for a full return of funds, including for gear that is not as specified or turns out to be stolen.
• If you must deal with an unknown seller, have the gear inspected by a reputable third party service center or broker. If the seller refuses to allow this or is hesitant to provide serial numbers, you should be suspicious.
• If the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

RENTAL GUARD was developed for professional rental companies. However, if an individual suffers the loss of a major piece of serial-numbered, professional equipment like a lens or camera body, he or she should report it to RENTAL GUARD immediately. This offers the best chance for recovery and forewarns potential buyers that the equipment is hot.

If you find yourself working with gear that is listed as stolen, snap a picture showing the serial number. Find the item on RENTAL GUARD and click REPORT A MATCH.

Equipment theft hurts everyone: it hurts camera crews, cinematographers, the productions, and the equipment suppliers. It raises insurance rates. It removes hard-to-replace equipment from the market. Some rare and vintage glass is simply one of a kind and totally irreplaceable.

This article is available for download.

In Memoriam: James Pope

| PERG News: February 2017 |

James Pope, co-owner of Schumacher Camera in Chicago was killed in a traffic accident over the year-end holidays. On January 15th the Chicago production community gathered at Hopleaf Bar to remember his life. Pope, age 52, was struck by a semi-tractor trailer while changing a tire on the side of the I-80 freeway. Pope is survived by his 11-year-old son Caleb.

James Pope was a highly respected member of the Chicago film community. Pope and Michael Acuna have co-owned Schumacher Camera since 2006, when Carole Schumacher, widow of founder director/DP Joe Schumacher, sold it to Pope and Acuna, both of whom were long-time Schumacher staff.

Ruth L. Ratny quoted Acuna on Reel Chicago, “James had his pulse on Chicago production, doing his best to keep a positive attitude for the city, knowing we were ambassadors for Chicago production to the industry. He worked tirelessly, around the clock, to cater to our clients needs.”

James Pope

A fund has been set up in the name of James Pope’s son, Caleb. Please visit https://www.gofundme.com/calebs-fund to make a donation.

A Year of Recoveries

| PERG News: February 2017 |

In 2016 RENTAL GUARD, and the efforts of NYPD and others, contributed to ten equipment recoveries worth roughly $1.4 million. The story of how these recoveries were made is amazing—and informative.

In 2016 RENTAL GUARD received more theft reports and more fraud alerts than any year to date: 87 theft reports, $8,758,000 in stolen gear, more than double the 2015 totals. While this is clear evidence that theft remains a major industry problem, these data also confirm that RENTAL GUARD is fulfilling its mission as the central, industry-wide, depository for theft information. We have no way of knowing the percentage of incidents reported to us, but suspect RENTAL GUARD now collects the majority of them (in the Americas).

In many of the recoveries RENTAL GUARD confirms that the equipment is in fact stolen after a potential buyer becomes suspicious. This happened in Atlanta where a local rental house was offered an ARRI Alexa Mini package (worth roughly $60,000) for the bargain basement price of $14,000. The rental house owner made inquiries with other rental houses and checked RENTAL GUARD where he found out the camera and set of six Xeen lenses had been stolen in September from DP, Tom Marvel. (In September the equipment had been rented and not returned. The thief had forged the paperwork, pretending to be an existing production company.) After suffering the theft, Marvel’s pain was doubled when his insurance denied the claim, as it was an act of fraud (see Are You Covered for Theft by Rental, August 2016). The rental house owner made the bold and principled decision to step in and get law enforcement on the case. As a result, the equipment was soon back in the hands of its rightful owner.

Tom Marvel with his recovered Alexa Mini.

In another case (the one discussed in the article titled Lessons Learned, in this issue), a Los Angeles-based buyer discovered a Mexican rental house’s identifying marks on the lens the buyer had purchased. The buyer became suspicious and called the rental house, which confirmed the equipment had been stolen. The buyer flatly refused to take the loss. He attempted to ship the lens back to the seller in Mexico. The lens would have been lost again, but at this point Det. Martin Pastor stepped in and, using his LAPD contacts (see PERG Holds Theft Summit in Los Angeles, November 2016), had the Fed Ex truck stopped before it could reach its destination. Although no arrest could be made at the time, the macro lens was recovered and returned to the rental house.

We have several reports of people buying equipment on E-bay, only to later discover via RENTAL GUARD that the equipment is stolen. In one such case, the seller reportedly was able to assuage the buyer’s concerns that the camera had been previously stolen by informing him that the insured had been paid, and therefore no one would be making a claim on the camera! Of course, what the seller should have done, upon learning the equipment was stolen, was to have the camera returned and report it to the police. Despite knowing that the Sony F55’s serial number had been tampered with, the buyer took the camera in to Sony for a software upgrade. The Sony technician noticed, checked the internal serial number, and identified the camera as one reported stolen a year earlier. The insurance company took possession of the camera from Sony and in the end the E-bay seller refunded the buyer. The buyer noted that the camera had already passed through another party’s hands before he bought it. There’s plenty of blame to go around in this scenario. E-bay is unresponsive to consumer requests to require serial numbers on listed equipment (although police tell us that E-bay has been cooperative during police investigations).

The potential market among crew members for equipment being sold very cheaply on E-bay is a concern for PERG companies. PERG is working with Local 600 to increase awareness of the issue of equipment theft and what could happen to crew if they buy or sell stolen goods.

Probably the most astounding recovery made this year was related to a famous gold theft. It was national news in September when Julio Nivelo (aka David Vargas) stepped up to an open armored truck in New York and walked off with a bucket of gold flake worth $1.6 million. Detective Pastor is quoted in the New York Times saying, “He will run as far as he can, and we will find him.”

Pastor was as good as his word, catching up with the criminal in January 2017 in Ecuador. During the investigation, Pastor discovered other items stolen by Nivelo, including a $20,000 Canon camera package. The package has now been returned to its owner.

Security camera footage of Julio Nivelo with his pot of gold.

Not withstanding the terrific work of the NYPD and RENTAL GUARD, the biggest recovery of 2016 was simply blind luck. Missouri State Highway Patrol attempted to pull over a speeding cargo van near Jefferson City. The van tried to flee, eventually crashed, and the four occupants scattered on foot. Police apprehended two of them, and found more than a $1 million of professional camera equipment in the back of the van. The equipment was from one large burglary that took place at a northern California rental house. In that theft, the burglars had managed to defeat the alarm system and cut a hole through the wall of the facility.

Another way that RENTAL GUARD plays a role is by escalating a smallish crime and revealing it to have national significance. This was the case when a Burbank rental company reported a $123,000-theft on last summer. The Burbank detective was ready to drop the case, but then became very interested when the RENTAL GUARD report prompted emails and phone calls from other companies that had previously encountered the same thief—using the same ID and credit card. He had attempted or succeeded in stealing equipment in five other instances including ones in New York and Philadelphia. Ultimately the Burbank detective was unable to take action, so Detective Pastor urged the Las Vegas Metro Police to conduct a sting operation that resulted in the arrest of the thief and recovery of all of the equipment.

A similar recovery happened in Minneapolis when RENTAL GUARD enabled the rental company to show local police their theft was tied to a theft in Texas where the same ID and credit card were used. In both the Burbank and Minneapolis cases, the vital connection was provided by a third-party rental house that read the Theft Alert from RENTAL GUARD and reached out to the theft victim with additional information.

We recognize that chasing after equipment once it has been stolen is the least effective way to deal with the theft epidemic. PERG’s focus over the past few years has been on prevention: physical security, adequately trained staff, clear understanding of the red flags for fraud, robust procedures for vetting new customers, and a willingness by management to turn down a rental and report the customer with a Questionable Customer Alert. That said, the recovery of equipment sends a direct message to equipment thieves and has a crucial cooling effect on the market for stolen goods. Recoveries are a direct benefit to equipment owners and insurance companies that pay the claims, and recoveries are a visible way of showing RENTAL GUARD’s impact.

The rental community is making a difference by working together. We have incredible support from law enforcement. ARRI, Sony, and other service centers are helping by performing due diligence. It is heartening to see some positive signs of progress. Although the end is not in sight when it comes to equipment theft, we have built a path and we now can see that it is leading to a better place.

PERG Council News

| PERG News: February 2017 |

On January 26th the PERG’s Executive Council held its first strategy meeting of 2017. In the coming months, PERG is looking forward to announcing a number of new and exciting initiatives and events to take place in 2017.

The Council applauded Paul Royalty for his fine leadership as the PERG Council Chair over the past two years. That torch has now passed to Derek Hammer (Hammer Lighting & Grip).

The PERG Council also welcomed a new council member, Stosh Durbacz, the Canadian Sales Manager of the Optical Devices Division of Fujifilm North America Corp. The council, which is primarily owners and principals of rental houses, will benefit from input from the manufacturing side. This coincides with PERG’s desire to start holding regional educational and networking events.

Tom Fletcher (Fletcher Camera and Lenses in Chicago and Cineverse) stepped down from the Council after serving for many years, first when the organization was PERA, and later when it became part of ESTA and renamed PERG.

Photo by Lawrence Daufenbach taken by
drone-mounted camera on Stage One at PC&E, Atlanta.

The PERG Executive Council:

Carly Barber, Illumination Dynamics

Terra Bliss, Panavision

Rufus Burnham, The Camera House

John Cini, High Output

Stosh Durbacz, Fujifilm

Lawrence Daufenbach, Daufenbach Camera

Derek Hammer, Hammer Lighting & Grip

Debby Miller, Midtown Video

Mardrie Mullen, Clairmont Camera

J.R. Reid, JR Lighting

Paul Royalty, Litegear

John Rule, Rule/Boston Camera

Scott Taylor, Taylor & Taylor Associates

Mark Tye, Citation Support

Mark Wofford, PC&E

Lessons Learned: Precautions When Buying Equipment

| PERG News: February 2017 |

It has got to be a bad feeling to buy equipment and then find out the equipment you purchased is stolen gear. Since good title cannot be transferred from a thief, the purchaser is out their money.

We have now heard a number of accounts like this, including one that happened in December. Some lenses were stolen down in Mexico. A local police report was filed but the items were not immediately posted on Rental Guard. A potential buyer in the US saw a lens for sale on line and checked with the manufacturer to see whether or not they showed the lens listed as stolen, which they did not. After the buyer remitted their money and received the lens, they found that there were stickers covering the engraving of the Mexican rental house.

The buyer was now suspicious and contacted the Mexican rental house and confirmed that this particular lens had in fact been stolen. The lens was ultimately returned to the company from whom it was stolen

The lessons that can be learned from this fact pattern are threefold:

1. Always know who you are buying equipment from and make sure they have a return policy that allows for a full return of funds if the merchandise is not as specified and/or it turns out to be stolen.
2. Always post stolen equipment on RENTAL GUARD immediately after a theft occurs to allow the best chance for a recovery by law enforcement and to forewarn potential buyers of the gear. Also, notify the equipment manufacturer and, in the US, ask the police to enter the serial numbers in the their national database.
3. If you must deal with an unknown seller try to have the gear inspected by a reputable third party who specializes in the sale and repair of camera equipment.

These guidelines are included in a flyer that is available for download from the PERG website.