The robbed that smiles...

Lowflynjack

Lowflynjack

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Jack Fleetwood
Some of you follow me on Facebook and already heard the news. I woke up a few weeks ago to find I'd been robbed. All of my cameras and lenses were gone, along with a lot of my tools, some of my Dad's knives, and more. To add salt to the wound, the responding police officer was a jerk. To add a little more salt to the wound, I lost around $37K of items, but my homeowners insurance only covered $2500 for 'business' items. I got a check for $7500 total.

I was amazed at the love and support I got. So much in fact that it was overwhelming. I had so many people offering to help me out financially with a GoFundMe or to just give me cash. The advice was also overwhelming... get this insurance, get this garage door opener, get this alarm, get this security camera... all intended with love.

So that brings me to this quote. "The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief." -William Shakespeare. Screw these guys, they won't win. Does this hurt financially? Yep. Do I want money from my friends? Nope. I quickly warned my friends that if they sent me money, it would go to charity, not cameras. There are people out there that need help. I'll be fine.

I'm going to take this as a sign that I need to do better in life. Going forward, $100 of every photo shoot I do will go to St. Judes or Ronald McDonald House, both of which touched my heart (a story for another time!).

Now for some good news. I got my new cameras and lenses today. I'm ready to depart for Oshkosh next week where I'll be shooting for EAA again. I'm truly a very lucky man.
 
Sorry to hear that, but great way to respond to it!

"That 50mm f/4? Yeah that was a business lens. Oh, the 150-600mm constant f/2.8 zoom? Nah, that's just for personal use." :)
 
Jack, glad you have a good attitude about the loss. The emotional reactions are hard to push away.

I am certain that your next year will be much more enjoyable than the year ahead for the thief.
 
@Lowflynjack do you want to put a list out there of what was lost in case it starts showing up on Texas classifieds? Maybe we could get the broader photography community to help find the perps, or at least recover some of it...
 
RyanShort1 said:
@Lowflynjack do you want to put a list out there of what was lost in case it starts showing up on Texas classifieds? Maybe we could get the broader photography community to help find the perps, or at least recover some of it...
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Serial numbers are listed with the police and an agency that will search exif data on photos. Doubt anything will ever be found unless someone pawns it or sends it in for repairs.
 
That’s a good attitude, keep it up. Sorry it happened, that really stinks but your philanthropy is admirable.
 
Lowflynjack said:
Serial numbers are listed with the police and an agency that will search exif data on photos. Doubt anything will ever be found unless someone pawns it or sends it in for repairs.
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That could happen if you're lucky. I had a musical instrument stolen a few years ago, and I got it back *and* the guy got busted because he tried to pawn it and I had the serial number to give out.
 
Lowflynjack said:
Serial numbers are listed with the police and an agency that will search exif data on photos. Doubt anything will ever be found unless someone pawns it or sends it in for repairs.
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Well, keep an eye on Craigslist and OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace. My guess is they will show up somewhere.
 
RyanShort1 said:
Well, keep an eye on Craigslist and OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace. My guess is they will show up somewhere.
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Nope! Many people have given me that advice or even offered to keep an eye out for me.

You see something on FB you think is yours, but you don’t know unless you go look at it and check the serial number, then call the police and try to get them to help, or just take it. Don’t forget that’s how they finally got OJ! Stealing his stolen stuff back!
 
Jack, you're a better man than me. People like you make the world more bearable for curmudgeons like me and I'll try to do better going forward.

I'm willing to bet the thing that stings the most, besides feeling violated by a thief, are the knives that can't be replaced as easily.
 
Racerx said:
Jack, you're a better man than me. People like you make the world more bearable for curmudgeons like me and I'll try to do better going forward.

I'm willing to bet the thing that stings the most, besides feeling violated by a thief, are the knives that can't be replaced as easily.
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I can be pretty curmudgeonly! I was very angry, the devastated, then angry again! As I've gotten older, and my testosterone has dropped, I find my attitude is changing some. I'm still not someone that you would describe as calm, but maybe not so intense! There was a time I'd tell you I'm a gun-owning Texan and if I'd caught them... but now I'm thankful I didn't catch them. I might have killed someone or they might have killed me. Everything was stolen from my garage while I was sleeping. Until now, I'd never locked the door leading from my garage into my house. They could have come in and made things much worse.

Oh, and yes, I lost my Dad a couple of years ago. Luckily they only got a couple of his knives, but they are irreplaceable.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I can be pretty curmudgeonly! I was very angry, the devastated, then angry again! As I've gotten older, and my testosterone has dropped, I find my attitude is changing some. I'm still not someone that you would describe as calm, but maybe not so intense! There was a time I'd tell you I'm a gun-owning Texan and if I'd caught them... but now I'm thankful I didn't catch them. I might have killed someone or they might have killed me. Everything was stolen from my garage while I was sleeping. Until now, I'd never locked the door leading from my garage into my house. They could have come in and made things much worse.

Oh, and yes, I lost my Dad a couple of years ago. Luckily they only got a couple of his knives, but they are irreplaceable.
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Like you I didnt lock the doors at my house. I'm pretty secluded. But a few years ago my truck was broken into and they snagged my archery case which had my bow in it. Only 2500 worth but that feeling something else. A little anger sure. But the feeling of being violated like that is just different. I hope in some miracle of a way, what is irreplaceable finds its way back to you.
 
Racerx said:
I hope in some miracle of a way, what is irreplaceable finds its way back to you.
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Thanks! I'm not going to say it wouldn't be nice, but I've moved on if it doesn't!
 
Terrible news. I also hope the thief tries to be opportunistic and tries to list it on FB or a pawn shop where someone notices and the thief gets his due. How did they break into your garage (or was the main door open)? I get pretty complacent of leaving the garage door open when I'm home, having grown up in a pretty quiet suburb. My tools are really about the only thing of any real value in there, but I'd lose several thousands if they were to steal that stuff, saying nothing of the tool chests themselves. We also don't generally lock the door going from garage into the home.
 
SoonerAviator said:
How did they break into your garage (or was the main door open)? I get pretty complacent of leaving the garage door open when I'm home, having grown up in a pretty quiet suburb. My tools are really about the only thing of any real value in there, but I'd lose several thousands if they were to steal that stuff, saying nothing of the tool chests themselves. We also don't generally lock the door going from garage into the home.
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I spoke to a local garage door company and he said they take a coat hangar and reach in and pull the emergency rope. When they leave, they flip it back up and lower the door, so if you don't notice anything missing, you don't know they've been there and they get more time to sell your stuff!

I'm pretty good about keeping my garage door closed, but I wonder if I hit the button to close it, walked inside without watching it close completely. Something or someone could have triggered the safety sensor. My garage door opener has a switch that disables/locks it at night and I now use that. I also added cameras, including one in my garage.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I spoke to a local garage door company and he said they take a coat hangar and reach in and pull the emergency rope. When they leave, they flip it back up and lower the door, so if you don't notice anything missing, you don't know they've been there and they get more time to sell your stuff!

I'm pretty good about keeping my garage door closed, but I wonder if I hit the button to close it, walked inside without watching it close completely. Something or someone could have triggered the safety sensor. My garage door opener has a switch that disables/locks it at night and I now use that. I also added cameras, including one in my garage.
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Does your garage door have windows on it? I'm just trying to picture how you would get a hold of the emergency rope by sticking a hangar either from above/below via the door weather seals. It would be doing it blind unless you could see the hangar through a window as you were trying that trick. Another item of note is that you can add an electronic lock in place of the manual slide lock which is actuated by the garage door opener. That way, even if they pulled the emergency release, the side rail door lock would still be engaged. Either way, very unfortunate.
 
I grew up in a quiet suburban neighborhood, and we live in one now. It’s where the scumbags go to steal stuff, since there’s nothing worth stealing in their own neighborhoods. Our neighbors across the street had a car stolen out of their garage; the door was up and the keys were in it. Duh.

We lock up tight at night, and I’m thinking about an automatic electric bolt for the garage doors… they’re trivially easy to pull open even with the automatic opener.

I try to make sure everything is secure every night, but nobody’s perfect. We’ve had cars in the driveway rifled through, and a snowblower stolen. The Wyze camera didn’t catch the person who did that, so those are gone now.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Does your garage door have windows on it? I'm just trying to picture how you would get a hold of the emergency rope by sticking a hangar either from above/below via the door weather seals. It would be doing it blind unless you could see the hangar through a window as you were trying that trick. Another item of note is that you can add an electronic lock in place of the manual slide lock which is actuated by the garage door opener. That way, even if they pulled the emergency release, the side rail door lock would still be engaged. Either way, very unfortunate.
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No windows. Apparently they do it through the sections of the door. They even showed how on our local news 10 years ago!
 
Lowflynjack said:
Nope! Many people have given me that advice or even offered to keep an eye out for me.

You see something on FB you think is yours, but you don’t know unless you go look at it and check the serial number, then call the police and try to get them to help, or just take it. Don’t forget that’s how they finally got OJ! Stealing his stolen stuff back!
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respect, sir! great attitude

and I recon that's a good approach to take.
Several years ago some crook stole a tractor with a front end loader from my dad. It was parked in an open barn on some farm land he owns mostly for hunting. It was a good tractor that he liked, and I watched him stress and worry for many months, maybe a year, over that thing...watching the adds, calling around, driving to dealers to see if anyone had traded it in.... he finally let it go.

about the coat hanger trick...a few years ago I saw something about this....said to fix the string tight with a zip tie up to structure, but with the string still hanging down so you can reach it. I don't know if it really helps or not, but I did it back then. The idea being that even if they do snag the rope with a wire and pull it, they won's have leverage to break the zip tie and release the door. Seems to me that they still might, but I did it anyway......becasue it might be better than doing nothing...
and then just a couple weeks ago the power knocked offline just after I pushed the button to get my car out to go to work. The door was up maybe a foot. talk about timing! I had to pull the rope to open the door manually....Took a pretty good tug to break the zip tie but I was able to do it easily enough.... I'd imagine a crook could maybe do it from outside too, but they'd be pulling on a less than ideal angle so maybe it'll help.....
 
Brad W said:
respect, sir! great attitude

and I recon that's a good approach to take.
Several years ago some crook stole a tractor with a front end loader from my dad. It was parked in an open barn on some farm land he owns mostly for hunting. It was a good tractor that he liked, and I watched him stress and worry for many months, maybe a year, over that thing...watching the adds, calling around, driving to dealers to see if anyone had traded it in.... he finally let it go.

about the coat hanger trick...a few years ago I saw something about this....said to fix the string tight with a zip tie up to structure, but with the string still hanging down so you can reach it. I don't know if it really helps or not, but I did it back then. The idea being that even if they do snag the rope with a wire and pull it, they won's have leverage to break the zip tie and release the door. Seems to me that they still might, but I did it anyway......becasue it might be better than doing nothing...
and then just a couple weeks ago the power knocked offline just after I pushed the button to get my car out to go to work. The door was up maybe a foot. talk about timing! I had to pull the rope to open the door manually....Took a pretty good tug to break the zip tie but I was able to do it easily enough.... I'd imagine a crook could maybe do it from outside too, but they'd be pulling on a less than ideal angle so maybe it'll help.....
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Yeah, I don't have time to worry about it and I don't need the stress! It was wearing me down.

Yep, in the video I watched, they recommended the zip tie. I have already removed the rope, I'll add the zip tie today!
 
So as expected, I've heard nothing about my stolen items. I've finally got my new cameras dialed in. It was more of a challenge than I expected. Usually when I buy a new camera, I have the old one to compare it to for settings... but not this time!

Anyway, I haven't been paid for much work since this happened. A lot of the magazines pay me when it publishes. However, I'm doing what I can to honor my promise, More to come. Thanks for all of the love and support!
 

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Jack,

Since you lost all of your gear and had an opportunity to start over from scratch - I'm wondering why you didn't opt to go mirrorless? Seems all the state-of-the-art new glass is RF not EF.

Happy to see you're still on team Canon regardless.

C.
 
camorton said:
Jack,

Since you lost all of your gear and had an opportunity to start over from scratch - I'm wondering why you didn't opt to go mirrorless? Seems all the state-of-the-art new glass is RF not EF.

Happy to see you're still on team Canon regardless.

C.
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I tried the R3, didn't like it and I don't think Canon appreciated my feedback! The photos were great, but looking through the view-finder didn't work for me doing air-to-air. The best way I can describe it was it made the props look like they were hesitating.

The other thing I didn't like was the weight. Most people complain about how heavy my cameras are, but I think the weight helps steady my hand!

If Canon will let me try it, I may try the R1 when it comes out! For now, I have two of the Canon 1DX Mark iii, supposedly the last DSLRs they will ever make. I may ride them off into the sunset!
 
Very interesting feedback. Maybe the refresh rate of the electronic viewfinder is a bad match for the typical prop RPM. Perhaps there could be a software fix for this issue.

Did the in-body image stabilization prove useful? I would think that would be another big advantage for your work. Maybe having it in the lens is enough.

C.
 
camorton said:
Very interesting feedback. Maybe the refresh rate of the electronic viewfinder is a bad match for the typical prop RPM. Perhaps there could be a software fix for this issue.

Did the in-body image stabilization prove useful? I would think that would be another big advantage for your work. Maybe having it in the lens is enough.

C.
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It may have helped, but losing the weight of the camera I'm used to made it worse, so probably balanced out. Overall, probably a good camera, but not a replacement for the 1D series in my opinion. The weight and strength of the 1D cameras made them a go-to in tough environments.
 
Holy moley, Jack! I heard about this happening to while I was at OSH this year and made me sick to my stomach. Agree about the R3; it's nice but I thought "meh" and still roll with R5 and 5Dsr bodies because I'm a resolution addict. R1 will arrive soon enough.

I had a couple pieces of gear stolen over the years while at OSH and recovered one of them (long story, but the thief's expression at arrest time months later...priceless). My gear is in a literal vault at one of my offices; they'd need to jackhammer concrete and use a plasma cutter twice to get through while being on camera the whole time. Speaking of that, don't skimp on security cameras.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I tried the R3, didn't like it and I don't think Canon appreciated my feedback! The photos were great, but looking through the view-finder didn't work for me doing air-to-air. The best way I can describe it was it made the props look like they were hesitating.

The other thing I didn't like was the weight. Most people complain about how heavy my cameras are, but I think the weight helps steady my hand!

If Canon will let me try it, I may try the R1 when it comes out! For now, I have two of the Canon 1DX Mark iii, supposedly the last DSLRs they will ever make. I may ride them off into the sunset!
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I hear you! I started out on a Pentax K1000 with a Vivitar zoom that was doubt 10" long and weighed several pounds. Upgraded to the Pentax FX (still a SWEET camera) but eventually went to DSLRs. I know the mirrorless are very good, but I've gotten so used to the feedback of the SLR viewfinder and the continuity with film cameras that I likely won't ever get a mirrorless, though i do think it's a very fine new technology. I love my DSLR's and lenses.
 
Lawson_Stone said:
I hear you! I started out on a Pentax K1000 with a Vivitar zoom that was doubt 10" long and weighed several pounds. Upgraded to the Pentax FX (still a SWEET camera) but eventually went to DSLRs. I know the mirrorless are very good, but I've gotten so used to the feedback of the SLR viewfinder and the continuity with film cameras that I likely won't ever get a mirrorless, though i do think it's a very fine new technology. I love my DSLR's and lenses.
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Same here. I like my Canon mirror DSLR, and if I want "mirrorless" function I can always put the camera into live-view mode and see the image on the preview screen.
 
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