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.