sorry if this in the wrong place, couldnt tell where it should go.

model theft is something i never hear about despite it happening quite often, and decided to share my two stories and hope to hear some of yours, and possibly help others recover from loses. that said i will get on with my stories

my first model stolen was just a simple guardsman, one i bought second hand from a friend to get my army started, but in the following months, one guardsman became 4. at this point i started putting my case under the table i was playing at so i would be next to it at all times. despite this i lost another 3 guardsmen over the next month, likely stolen while i went to pickup a pizza from the place next door. eventually i started putting my dead minis straight in my case and contemplated getting a lock. several days later my decision was made after a tech marine, i had won in a contest, and a company commander, that i had spent the last 2 months perfecting for a painting contest, were stolen.

now over the next two years my armies grew as i came upon a new source of income besides a measly allowance, and i hadnt had any more loses and neither had any of my friends who go regularly, so i got naive and lax and didnt wait to get a case for my spiffy new tanks, and just stuck them in a shoe box with some padding and a bag of all my magnetized weapons, all of my weapons except the ones i had on my models at the time. after about a month and 5 games later i notice i "forgot" all my weapons that day, assuming i had them out finish painting the new additions. so i get home and, exhausted after playing for eight hours and being the lazy idiot i am , i completely forget about my missing weapons and go to bed. two months later after a gaming drought due to being to busy with school and other gak, i break out my models to paint them and get them ready for a game this weekend. i go check the box for my weapons, gone. check literally everywhere, including under my minifridge, and then i remembered i did indeed bring my bag of weapons the day i forgot them, as my veteran squad had meltas instead of plasmas, and i always store my vets with their plasmas. along with that, my hellhound had its banewolf cannon in, instead of its standard one.
( 30$ in magnets, the guns from six sentinels, my sponsons for my two leman russ's, everything for 2 chimeras and my hellhound, along with 18 plasma guns and most of my other special weapons.)

now this wouldnt be so bad thanks to ebay if it wasnt for the simple fact that it took me two years to get all that because i can barely afford it with me being a hemophiliac and medication being expensive and for profit in the U.S.

Ouch man, it is so low of someone to steal models especially like a single guardsman, I can't see the point, luckily I have not had anything stolen while in my GW. The manager there keeps an eye on your stuff or lets you keep it in the storeroom if you go out to grab lunch or stuff so maybe my friends and I are lucky, if anyone ever steals my models and I find out who, I will not be responsible for my actions lol.

Sorry about that.

Can't stand thieves.

People think I am paranoid for never leaving my stuff around a table or leaving my battlefoam bag alone.

Then there is the iron bars on my windows, security system and gun under my bed.

Someone stole my pokemon Yellow version many many moons ago. Made me sad.

Wow mini, I have never had any models stolen. I would reconsider playing at that location or with a different group of people. Are you sure you didn't just leave some models behind? Seems odd to steal 1 IG.

Thieves beget corporal punishment in my book.

We wrote:Wow mini, I have never had any models stolen. I would reconsider playing at that location or with a different group of people. Are you sure you didn't just leave some models behind? Seems odd to steal 1 IG.

i know for a fact none of those where left behind, i scour the table before i pack up and keep track of how full my trays are supposed to be lol.

there is someone i kinda suspect, another guard player who desperately wanted the tech marine to convert into a techpriest, and had a converted techpriest the next time i went there. he was also there when i lost the company commander as well. as for the group, its pretty much the only place not a few hours away for me, and only a handful of them are TFG.

luckily my birthday is in a few days, and one of my best friends is rich, but its looking like im going to have more tanks and guardsmen instead of that warhound from forge world


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SalamanderMarine wrote:Ouch man, it is so low of someone to steal models especially like a single guardsman, I can't see the point, luckily I have not had anything stolen while in my GW. The manager there keeps an eye on your stuff or lets you keep it in the storeroom if you go out to grab lunch or stuff so maybe my friends and I are lucky, if anyone ever steals my models and I find out who, I will not be responsible for my actions lol.

luckily all i had when he was taking guardsmen were either second hand, or horribly made and painted by myself eight years ago. as for the store, its a tiny store, basically a wide hallway with a few tables. the managers we have had are really good, but it gets really crowded in there when its busy and he's the only one there so it wouldnt be hard to steal a model or two.

for finding out who it was it wouldnt be hard and might be funny actually, as i could just take some of my magnets with me next time and see if they stick to any of his weapons, then call him out on it

Thieves of any kind truly are the lowest of the low. He may not have even wanted your guardsman that bad, some thieves just get off on the thrill getting away with it.

Although I don't play Warhammer 40k tabletop myself (I'd love to if I could find a place too) your story reminds me of one of my own many years ago, when I was in 11th grade.

I was home schooled at the time, but went to a trade school for half the day as a "supplement" education. I always played Yu-Gi-Oh with a few of my friends, and one of their "friends".

Said "friend of friend" always looked through our cards for the sake seeing what we had just for the hell of it, but he always did so in odd way, BELOW the table.

I was young and ignorant back then, so between on going conversations and just not thinking any thing of it, he was able to steal several of my prized cards, all of which where foils, and personally treasured by myself for having the luck of finding them in card packs.

Once I noticed this I immediately suspected him, and confronted him the next day, but being the atypical "cool-guy-in-denial" deynied everything and just up and left, we (or at least I) didn't see him again after that.

I was still pissed off about loosing my cards, so I went to the principle of the trade school and told him what had happened. He seemed to care, but didn't see it as big of a deal as I did, regardless I told him the names and appearance of my missing cards and he promised to do something.

Sure enough a few days later I was called to the principle's office again. He told me that he and another school official had confronted the thief about what happened and even went so far as to page through he binder full of cards during active class time to look for my own stolen cards, but not being players themselves or having been given pictures they weren't able to find them.

In the end I didn't get any of my stolen cards back, but the fact that the principle had gone so far as to embarrass the thief in-front of his entire class and page through he book of more then likely stolen cards was revenge enough for me.

But honestly when it comes down to it I have no love for thieves, those who don't steal to live just those who steal because they can.

I also have to say I myself wouldn't be above corporal punishment either, given the chance I'd probably have punched that thief in the face, just one solid hit to floor him to ground, just to get the point across that I don't tolerate thieves of any kind.

Regardless of TCG or TTWG played, I think we can all agree there is just no justifying outright theft.

I'm glad you've become more careful with your models, If I ever start playing myself, I'll keep what you your self learned in mind when I play.

This has happened to me before.

I was in my local GW playing a game and I had forgotten to bring along my CSM Codex. I stepped away from the table to ask the manager if I was able to use the store's copy. When I returned to the table (I was gone all of two minutes), I instantly noticed that 5 of my Possessed Chaos Marines had gone missing.

I told the manager of the theft and he and the other staff in the store wouldn't let anyone leave until everyone's bags had been searched for the missing models. The bag search didn't find any of the missing models, though I was lucky enough to have photos of them on my phone at the time and provided a copy to the store incase they saw anyone with them.

So far, none of them have been found.

Capt. Rex wrote:This has happened to me before.

I was in my local GW playing a game and I had forgotten to bring along my CSM Codex. I stepped away from the table to ask the manager if I was able to use the store's copy. When I returned to the table (I was gone all of two minutes), I instantly noticed that 5 of my Possessed Chaos Marines had gone missing.

I told the manager of the theft and he and the other staff in the store wouldn't let anyone leave until everyone's bags had been searched for the missing models. The bag search didn't find any of the missing models, though I was lucky enough to have photos of them on my phone at the time and provided a copy to the store incase they saw anyone with them.

So far, none of them have been found.

this actually reminds me of a funny story from years ago before they re-opened the GW in my town. basically the store had to keep replacing models from the battle for maccrage set they had out every couple of months because the models kept going missing. during those times the store was usually really busy and no one really paid attention to most of the unattended children the occasionally made it into the store, the only reason i ever noticed them is because i was barely tall enough to see over the tables at the time (to short to even reach the middle lol). so one day while painting like a 4 year old on crack and ruining the models like every child wargamer does. i happen to notice one of those unattended kids chewing on something blue and odd shaped. lets just say that ultrasmurf met something more dangerous than a genestealer

Theft is a disgusting act, even joking about it will get a rather negative response from me as a dude at my local store found out the other day. I keep an eye out favor him now and always have an eye on my bags if they're not in hand.

I'm kinda hoping to make some wargaming friends IRL when I go to college so I can just play here at the house or at friend's homes instead of the FLGS. Paranoia's not much fun...

for finding out who it was it wouldnt be hard and might be funny actually, as i could just take some of my magnets with me next time and see if they stick to any of his weapons, then call him out on it

Yes do this! It sounds hilarious.


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Just remembered the time a kid walked into one of my GW's I go to with a tape measure with a big GWC (games workshop Crawley) written on in black permanent marker, and then swear blind that it was his uncles and his uncles initials were G W C.

He was asked to leave by the manager.

Kids lol.

On returning to my car one evening, I passed two guys on the stairwell who for no explicable reason raised my suspicions.

As I reached the mezzanine floor connecting to the level I was parked on, I discovered my mini case open on the floor. Fearing the worst picked it up, but found the contents, almost 3k worth of Eldar including 10 Wraithguard, were intact. In their ignorance the thieves who had broken into my car had stolen £30 worth of stereo speakers and discarded hundreds of pounds worth of models!

A few years pass and the launch of 3rd Ed has me disillusioned with 40k. I decide to quit and leave my collection (aforementioned Eldar plus an extra 1k or so and about 2k of BA) with a 'mate' who knew more hobby folks in the area and agreed to sell them on my behalf for a cut of the profits. I never saw him or the models again. He now lives literally on the other side of the world.

On returning to the hobby again, some 12 years later and reconnected with some old gamIng frIends, it appears he offloaded them to the owner of the FLGS, who unfortunately didn't know their provenance as I knew him well and I'm sure he would have grabbed them back for me.

Looks like they were always destined to be taken from me.

There's probably some profound quote or proverb that sums it up!

I have not had this happen to me yet, but there are a few friends that I have had figures stolen.. Seemed to be from the same shop, sadly the owner never did anything to help find the figures.. Only thing I do at that shop, is play d&d.. I refuse to take in my Hordes or Warhammer Armies in for fear that it will happen..

Piston Honda wrote:

Can't stand thieves.

Then there is the iron bars on my windows, security system and gun under my bed.

Someone stole my pokemon Yellow version many many moons ago. Made me sad.

After reading that final line, I was disappointed not to read "he got both barrels in the face" as a conclusion

I NEVER leave the table with my models on for a second and I've been lucky that in the +20 years of playing I've only ever 'lost' a couple of guardsmen and a 40k rule book. Some armies I have never go to a public games shop as they contain rare and valuable models that are simply not replacable. I only use these armies with friends.

Before I got posted to the middle east, I used to attend a regular tournament hosted at GW organised by Tempus Fugatives (excellent they were). There was a well known father and son team who you had to watch like hawks. Taking terrain from the tables was one thing, but it was like they had to take a model from their opponent as some sort of trophy. Never any fire, but too much smoke for there not to be. The son when confronted about a missing model, ran off to the toilets, and surprise surprise, guess what turned up in the toilets?????

I think that during the +20 years I've been gaming, the problem of model theft has become bigger, and some of this I feel is because of the swing from more mature gamers, to young children. The older you are, the more respectful I think you are of the time and effort to produce a model, whereas someone new to the hobby isn't going to have that same mutual respect. There will always be exceptions, but I feel the longer you've been involved in the hobby, the less the temptation to steal someones model due to the respect you have for the hobby.

I also now have a 'no pictures' policy when I'm at GW HQ due to FW & GW 'stealing' from me. I won't start a debate on this but I made a type of armour for my Chimera's and a FW employee was very excited about it and took it away to photograph it. 6 months later its released as thier kit. Another was a member of the WD production team who asked me to write a parts list an article on how I did a specific converted model. Guess what, 12 months later its in the Space Marine Colectors book, albeit painted and converted by him (this was 3rd Ed era).

I had an apothecary that I bought from a friend stolen off of my kitchen table the same day that I bought it. To be fair, I'm pretty sure my cat stole it.
I have two more now, so I'm not terribly worried about it having gone missing.

timetowaste85 wrote:I had an apothecary that I bought from a friend stolen off of my kitchen table the same day that I bought it. To be fair, I'm pretty sure my cat stole it.
I have two more now, so I'm not terribly worried about it having gone missing.

Cats, the bane of models everywhere.

My gaming group is good, only one member below 16 and he's damn well behaved and knows the etiquette about examining and handling others models.

I have a friend who asked to borrow some terrain I had made for some video project for school.(college)
He promised to return it, but that was several years ago.
After about a year went by I asked him about it.
He became defensive and mumbled something about not having time. I asked again a few months later and he became all but irate that I had brought it up.
I am resigned to the idea that my terrain is gone, but this disappoints me greatly as I thought we were better friends than that. Needless to say I no longer trust him.

Years ago, while hanging out at the LGS, the store owner, who was a kind of a jerk, was telling me that if some of the store's demo army (10 marines and 20 Dark Eldar) didn't dissapear every so often that they were doing something wrong, so I stole one

I've never actually heard of someone stealing a mini at a LGS. It's sad that someone would do that. I'll have to start keeping a more watchful eye out in the future just in case.

Wasn't stolen from me, but from a friend, by my best friend.

This guy and I were really close friends growing up. In the latter years of high school, I moved away and didn't see him much afterward. Then apparently he was at another of my friends houses while they had a game of 40k (this was in the second edition days).

After he left, the other friend went to his room only to find just recently finished lictor and hive tyrant we're gone.

Needless to say, he wasn't a friend afterwards.

Model theft is a large reason of why I had quit 40k after 3rd ed. Had just come out. I left about 2k+ of chaos that I left at a friends house we would play at. This was about 18 months worth of saving as a 12-14 year old aka a freakin ton. A week later all my models are "gone" and he doesn't know what happened. 3 weeks after that he moves to his dads house 3 states away and I never saw him again. Until a 5 year high school reunion, where he admitted he sold them to another person at the flgs we played at all the time.

I hate theives. I've had things stolen from me in the past and it's very annoying. Even harder when you don't make a lot of money to replace what's stolen so you have to go without.

Nice to know that their are trustworthy people though. I'm realitivly new to the hobby and I meet a friend who was teaching me the game. He had 2k + BA and some dark elder with him plus a ton of customs terrain. We're in the middle of a game and he got a phone call that his wife needed a pick up so he left everything at the store with me while he took care of it. We have only known each other for a couple months.

Needless to say I was honored that he would trust me with so much and I watched everything like a hawk whenever someone came over to the table while he was gone.

I have never had anything stolen from my table. It's probably due to my having good situational awareness. 20 years working in prisons will make you both very untrusting and very observant. Thieves pick up on that and avoid people that they can see are keeping a close eye on everything going on around them. To use Jeff Cooper's "color code" awareness scale, a thief will always choose someone who is in "condition white" as opposed to someone who is in always in "condition yellow".

That being said, I have found model theft to be fairly uncommon. I've had friends who have had figure cases walk off at a convention before, and known a few guys who had stuff lost in parking lot brea- ins. but on the whole it's been my experience that theft is fairly uncommon. Other's experiences obviously differ.

TR

So what you're saying is that you are Yellow TR? I thought thems fighin' word in the states!

There are allot of stories here that don't end with "then I punched his lights out". Som epeople are too tolerant I guess.

The closest I came was a year or so at a tournament I had "lost" four guardsmen. It was with a sound crowd so didn't think they had been nicked but spent a nervous 10 minutes searching the tables I'd been on all the while thinking these guys would never do that.

A final (fourth!) check of my case before saying something to the TO and a complete recount of my minis revealed they were all there? Relieved I struggled to think how I had missed that, then realised the new trays I was using had 11 slots per row not the usual 10!

Lucky I don't point fingers......then I punched my lights out.

There was a thread here on Dakka by a guy who had his Shrike model stolen after playing a game. Then another thread opened and it was by a person who said that "some guy" that he was playing was a jerk so the second guy stole his opponent's Shrike to "teach him a lesson". I don't think that I ever heard how the situation was resolved.

The shrike stealer was continually slatted for it across multiple threads and ended up getting a bit upset about it.

It was really quite funny!

So what you're saying is that you are Yellow TR? I thought thems fighin' word in the states

heh. Nice one. I walked right into that one, and you got me!

All kidding aside, situational awareness is an area in which I am proudly "yellow".
I suspect most here (esecially our non-US based members) are not going to have a clue as to what I'm talking baout, so allow me a moment to explain. The "color codes" were invented many years ago by gun writer and self-defence expert Jeff Cooper as a handy way to explain good situational awareness. They range from "condition white", which is walking around with one's head in the clouds with no effort to pay attention to what is going on around you, to "condition red", which means that a speciic threat has been identitified and you're ready to react. (fight, run, whatever) Although it relates specificly to armed self defence, this article is a good explanation about situational awareness and the color codes: http://www.teddytactical.com/SharpenBladeArticle/4_States%20of%20Awareness.htm

Before anyone thinks otherwise, being in "condition yellow" does not mean that you are paranoid, walking around primed to fight. That's not it at all. It just means you are aware that we live in a world full of hazzards and that you look for those hazzards so as to not be caught flat footed. After a while it becomes second nature. It's also very visible to criminals who are looking for body language when they are picking out someone to victimize. I'll relate it to the wargaming table. If you are so absorbed in your game that when a stranger aproaches and start watching you play, you hardly notice him and continue to roll dice and move your models with your focus being 100% on gameplay, you are in "condition white". You are going to be an easy mark for someone wanting to pocket a handful of miniatures, walk off with your case, etc. Now contrast that with the following. The same stranger walks up to your table, and you imediately turn to him, make eye contact and say "Hi. How's it going?". You get back to your game and all the while, you keep the occasional check on the stranger. Roll dice, move a unit, glance at the stranger. Rinse repeat. That right there, will tell the would be thief that you are aware that he's there and that you are going to be much harder to steal from than the oblivious gamer I outline above. He's likely to pass you by in search of easier pickings. Criminals are by their nature, mostly stupid and lazy. They want easy targets.

TR

If you ever find that your army's been stolen, keep an eye on Craigslist. Posts from people who "don't know anything about this game" is a good indicator.

Years back I bought a "Bretonnian cavalry" army from a punk kid for $150. It was dark out and at a park-n-ride. When I got the whole thing to the game store and started counting it out, it was about $1000+ and professionaly painted by a painting service. The card was still in the bag from the service. I called them up letting them know I think I just bought a hot army and they'd been contacted by the original owner too!

Anyway, I met up with him and sold him his army back. Got my $150 - he'd had a bunch of camera equipment stolen too and so filed an insurance claim. I'm sure they reinbursed him for the retail value of the army so he came out ahead by buying it back for only $150.

Another friend of mine had his Warmachine army stolen. An ad on Craigslist popped up for "Warmachine army and the map you play on." The map was actually a Blood Bowl pitch that he had stored in his army bag as well.

He contacted the thief and arranged to meet - showed up with a police officer who arrested him. Guy had a bag of crack on him too - go figure.

Last point - don't store your figures in gun cases. Too easily mistaken for valuable guns while in your car and likely to get nicked.

notprop wrote:So what you're saying is that you are Yellow TR? I thought thems fighin' word in the states!

There are allot of stories here that don't end with "then I punched his lights out". Som epeople are too tolerant I guess.

The closest I came was a year or so at a tournament I had "lost" four guardsmen. It was with a sound crowd so didn't think they had been nicked but spent a nervous 10 minutes searching the tables I'd been on all the while thinking these guys would never do that.

A final (fourth!) check of my case before saying something to the TO and a complete recount of my minis revealed they were all there? Relieved I struggled to think how I had missed that, then realised the new trays I was using had 11 slots per row not the usual 10!

Lucky I don't point fingers......then I punched my lights out.

Or people are intentionally leaving out incriminating evidence of "I punched his lights out" on a public forum when discussing model theft. That and who wants to have some guy jump in and tell you what an Internet tough guy you are haha.

Swan-of-War wrote:If you ever find that your army's been stolen, keep an eye on Craigslist. Posts from people who "don't know anything about this game" is a good indicator.

Years back I bought a "Bretonnian cavalry" army from a punk kid for $150. It was dark out and at a park-n-ride. When I got the whole thing to the game store and started counting it out, it was about $1000+ and professionaly painted by a painting service. The card was still in the bag from the service. I called them up letting them know I think I just bought a hot army and they'd been contacted by the original owner too!

Anyway, I met up with him and sold him his army back. Got my $150 - he'd had a bunch of camera equipment stolen too and so filed an insurance claim. I'm sure they reinbursed him for the retail value of the army so he came out ahead by buying it back for only $150.

Another friend of mine had his Warmachine army stolen. An ad on Craigslist popped up for "Warmachine army and the map you play on." The map was actually a Blood Bowl pitch that he had stored in his army bag as well.

He contacted the thief and arranged to meet - showed up with a police officer who arrested him. Guy had a bag of crack on him too - go figure.

Last point - don't store your figures in gun cases. Too easily mistaken for valuable guns while in your car and likely to get nicked.

I do know the police in California are not amused when you store your models in gun case either. Go figure

Nor are the servers at restraunts when you saddle up to the bar with a rifle case in hand.

Well, people in general are not amused when you store your models in GW cases, so choose your battles.

Only by my cats never by a human player.

I don't tend to play in the "FLGS" that US/UK posters talk about, as they don't really exist in that sense in Oz. All my games are either at my place/friends places or at a club night held in a pub.

At any given moment amongst the guys I play with semi often, we've usually got various of each others flying bases/templates/dice/models in our respectives houses as a result of generally playing adultbeveragehammer most of the time.

People stealing things does really irritate me though, I just can't imagine taking something that wasn't mine. Even as a kid/teenager didn't steal stuff off mates/shoplift or anything.

At the minute I'm using a battlefoam custom cut bag, so it does make it easy to see when stuff is missing as it all has its own slot in the bag, but fortunately its not been an issue so far for me.

It's strange I stole something when I was very small, candy bar I think. My dad made me take it back in and appoligize to the store owner for taking it. Other than that I can't think of anything else. The consept just doesn't even occur to me. I even go out of my way to return other people's belongings.

I remember when I was younger and I pushed carts for Sam's Club they had me training a new kid and we found a purse out in the parking lot so I grabbed it and showed the new guy were to take it. About an hour later we get a call from the manager to come in,the purses owner had showed up. So we're standing there while this elderly lady counts her money out of her purse. Our eyes were poping. Who walks around with 6k in their purse. I don't feel right with 100 in cash on me sheesh.

Last month I went into a hobby shop I hardly venture into to meet up with a friend who was going to sell me some space marines with melt guns. Getting them cheap as I can't afford much otherwise I gave them a good looking at and payed. Left them on the edge of a table for about 20minutes and when I left I simply threw them in a shoebox and went along my way. When I got home the meltas were gone. Even some of the marines hands were chopped off.

Why?

I think the melts bits are expensive on the bits sites or so I've heard. That could be why. Sorry to hear about that

DeathRex wrote:Last month I went into a hobby shop I hardly venture into to meet up with a friend who was going to sell me some space marines with melt guns. Getting them cheap as I can't afford much otherwise I gave them a good looking at and payed. Left them on the edge of a table for about 20minutes and when I left I simply threw them in a shoebox and went along my way. When I got home the meltas were gone. Even some of the marines hands were chopped off.

Why?

The cheapest way to get meltas is 5 for $8 off GW's site, and most people don't know about that. Plastic ones can go on bits sites for up to 4 to 5$ a piece. Add in that they're highly desired by most competitive players who will need a lot of them, and it wouldn't surprise me that people would steal them. However, I have no idea how it would be practical to try and remove the models from the guns in the store. That's just begging to get you caught. Wouldn't it be easier to just take the whole model if you're stealing it and then "fix" it when you got home? I guess the guy was as stupid as he was greedy.

I'm just getting back into 40K because of theft.

Went to a tournet at the beginning of 4th, came in 2nd, won the painting award, figured I was having a good night.
Locked my case in my truck, and went to dinner with some other gamers from the tourney, when we get back, one of my locks is dangling from the truck and my case is missing.

Fairly obvious that it was a gamer, as several tousand dollars worth of stereo equipment wasn't touched.

LGS owner said he'd keep an eye out, and lots of people had pics of the army, but alas, nothing ever found.

Just got back in about 6 months ago, and haven't played outside of my house yet.

Wow that stinks man, sorry to hear that. Glad you jumped back in the saddle though.

I dont think I've ever had something stolen, I don't go to shops to play and my models aren't good enough to be stolen from displays.

I remember being at a model show a good few years ago where there was a fuss after a model or two were stolen from the competition room. They were top quality pieces, sorts of things that win prizes at Euro Militaire, he'll it might have been at Euro, I don't remember. You can imagine the owner wasn't too happy.

A lot of the hard plastic cases look like gun cases. I've read stories on here of people having their cars broken into and finding their minis in nearby dumpsters or stair wells. The crooks had probably thought they were getting an expensive gun or something.

Keep your stuff out of sight, boys and girls!

Lock that gak up!

Played Magic at the school... So many thiefs, i started to place the deck at the middle of the table. Was to young to realize i could just say "I will not play with that guy around"...

Never happened with miniatures, but i keep this feeling that im beying robbed everytime i buy a new miniature (specially the GW ones lol)

Several years back I had my car stolen while attending a miniatures convention in Pennsylvania called Historicon.

I had a few armies of quality painted miniatures in 15, 20 and 28mm numbering nearly 4k figures stored in the trunk of a 1998 BMW M3. The car was a write off, but the loss of those figures and the hours and hours spent painting those miniatures nearly killed me.

I gave up gaming for few years after that it hurt so bad.

I store my miniatures in cardboard boxes, with custom cut foam trays inside. Cheap junk camoflauge FTW!!

 adamsouza wrote:
I store my miniatures in cardboard boxes, with custom cut foam trays inside. Cheap junk camoflauge FTW!!

So do I.

I buy them from KR.

Yeah I worry about my cases being mistaken for gun cases. So I make sure they are in a closet, or when in my car, in my trunk.

I've never had any models stolen. The bunker I go to is really good. I once left my entire Chaos army in the case up there unlocked.

I called the next day when I realised it, and they said "Yeah we found it, and put it in the back. Everything was in tact books and all.

There was a big problem with theft at a LGS I played at many years ago. There was a very large population of school age kids that frequented the store. Young kids with little supervision + little money = lots of sticky fingers. My group would never leave at the same time. There was typically 4 of us, and we would go for food, bathroom breaks, etc 2 at a time.

I will say that the LGS gaming Ive done was far less enjoyable that in-home gaming. There is nothing better than gaming at home.

 Mad4Minis wrote:
There was a big problem with theft at a LGS I played at many years ago. There was a very large population of school age kids that frequented the store. Young kids with little supervision + little money = lots of sticky fingers. My group would never leave at the same time. There was typically 4 of us, and we would go for food, bathroom breaks, etc 2 at a time.

Wow, you've got a gaming group that has 4 women in it?! Thats awesome. We can barely find 1 or 2 here total.

I had a tac squad of painted Salamanders Jacked at a convention about 3 years ago. I was sort of irritated, but it was hard for me to be thyat upset as it took almost two years for me to notice.

 cincydooley wrote:

 Mad4Minis wrote:
There was a big problem with theft at a LGS I played at many years ago. There was a very large population of school age kids that frequented the store. Young kids with little supervision + little money = lots of sticky fingers. My group would never leave at the same time. There was typically 4 of us, and we would go for food, bathroom breaks, etc 2 at a time.

Wow, you've got a gaming group that has 4 women in it?! Thats awesome. We can barely find 1 or 2 here total.

I had a tac squad of painted Salamanders Jacked at a convention about 3 years ago. I was sort of irritated, but it was hard for me to be thyat upset as it took almost two years for me to notice.

Am I missing something but I don't see where there an indication of 4 women in the group...

Anyways, I store my stuff in krumy old cardboard boxes don't think anyone has figured out what they store yet hehe so probably won't happen to me anytime soon hopefully...

I do like that the LGS lets us store our stuff in the back or somewhere safe while we're not around...

Going to the toilet in pairs is generally comsidered a female thing.

Well played cincydooley, well played.

One time I came home from a week long holiday to find we'd been broken into, and a bag with a newly purchased Cygnar army had gone missing from our living room. Not sure if this counts as "model theft" as such, as they'd obviously just grabbed the inconspicuous looking hold-all on the way out.

Fair play to PP though, on telling our shop owner what had happened, our local press ganger sorted me out replacement stuff for everything that had been stolen. Above and beyond the duties of customer service.

That was VERY nice of them!

Some people are jerks and are either too lazy to buy it/paint it themselves or they see it as a quick buck on ebay. I haven't had any of my 40k stuff stolen but I dealt with it with my Star Wars Miniatures and Heroclix game pieces. That always urked me to the extreme. I get it, these things are expensive to buy and people will pay high prices for it.
My son had a schoolmate take some models from him and he caught him. Sufficient to say I went to this kids house and talked to his parents, I never accused the kid openly of stealing but instead of him having taken them by mistake. Sufficient to say we got them back and we never saw this kid at the FLGS again and my son didn't hang out with him again.

 WaaaaghLord wrote:
One time I came home from a week long holiday to find we'd been broken into, and a bag with a newly purchased Cygnar army had gone missing from our living room. Not sure if this counts as "model theft" as such, as they'd obviously just grabbed the inconspicuous looking hold-all on the way out.

Fair play to PP though, on telling our shop owner what had happened, our local press ganger sorted me out replacement stuff for everything that had been stolen. Above and beyond the duties of customer service.

Wow, more stories like this and I may actually start playing PP games

dpal666 wrote:
I'm just getting back into 40K because of theft.

Went to a tournet at the beginning of 4th, came in 2nd, won the painting award, figured I was having a good night.
Locked my case in my truck, and went to dinner with some other gamers from the tourney, when we get back, one of my locks is dangling from the truck and my case is missing.

Fairly obvious that it was a gamer, as several tousand dollars worth of stereo equipment wasn't touched.

LGS owner said he'd keep an eye out, and lots of people had pics of the army, but alas, nothing ever found.

Just got back in about 6 months ago, and haven't played outside of my house yet.

MF'ers !!!!!!!!!!!!! You need to post up a picture of that Army so we can keep an Eye on it world wide, if it won the Painting Award no doubt it's distinctive and no one will want to re-paint it.

Maybe Dakka could have a Crime Watch wall, of distinctive Armies for us all to keep on the lookout for? I'm guessing you are far from the only one who has had this.

the problem is that GW's pricing makes more thieves. Hence, why I've decided to start using CHS parts, and never play at a GW, and explicitly state from the get go that half my army uses parts from CHS. It's a lie, onyl about 15 models have CHS parts on them, so it's not that noticeable, but between all the conversions I've done on all of the models, it looks like a legitimate statment. The second thing I do, is proceed to paint the model in a complex fashion, using terribad colors: My loyalists are all yellow-grey qartered, with brass detailing. The real kicker, the entire army has one single cohesive theme, of knights-come-spacemarines. There's no getting away with theft on that one, because a comparison of the model gives it away immediately. And while I could have picked a better color scheme and painted them better, I'm glad of the terrible work I did painting them, because in the end, they're decently painted, but in hideous colors that makes it unattractive

Same with my Iron warriors. Every line marine has a chain-bayonet, and most of them are holding their weapons one-handed, and upright. Every heavy weapon is customised and converted... essentially, none of the miniatures could be stolen, as they choesively give off the identical appearance.

My imperial guard aren't even legit IG. The only trouble there comes with the commissars, so they're the only ones I have to keep an eye out for. I advertise from the get-go that they are not by any means GW legal, and it kills interest in my army right away.

My thousand sons are my precious, they are not going anywhere unless i know and trust the people there, because I paid through the nose for those models, even if at less than retail and second hand. too much effort and planning went into those...

apart from ustilising an oppresively obvious theme throughout the entire army, I don't see how else to make your army theft free.

Either the most brilliant parody ever or the symptoms of a deranged mind.

 mwnciboo wrote:

dpal666 wrote:
I'm just getting back into 40K because of theft.

Went to a tournet at the beginning of 4th, came in 2nd, won the painting award, figured I was having a good night.
Locked my case in my truck, and went to dinner with some other gamers from the tourney, when we get back, one of my locks is dangling from the truck and my case is missing.

Fairly obvious that it was a gamer, as several tousand dollars worth of stereo equipment wasn't touched.

LGS owner said he'd keep an eye out, and lots of people had pics of the army, but alas, nothing ever found.

Just got back in about 6 months ago, and haven't played outside of my house yet.

MF'ers !!!!!!!!!!!!! You need to post up a picture of that Army so we can keep an Eye on it world wide, if it won the Painting Award no doubt it's distinctive and no one will want to re-paint it.

Maybe Dakka could have a Crime Watch wall, of distinctive Armies for us all to keep on the lookout for? I'm guessing you are far from the only one who has had this.

+1 I could actually see that working, people just have to remember to call Law Enforcement and not take the law into their own hands

 poda_t wrote:
the problem is that GW's pricing makes more thieves. Hence, why I've decided to start using CHS parts, and never play at a GW, and explicitly state from the get go that half my army uses parts from CHS. It's a lie, onyl about 15 models have CHS parts on them, so it's not that noticeable, but between all the conversions I've done on all of the models, it looks like a legitimate statment. The second thing I do, is proceed to paint the model in a complex fashion, using terribad colors: My loyalists are all yellow-grey qartered, with brass detailing. The real kicker, the entire army has one single cohesive theme, of knights-cum-spacemarines. There's no getting away with theft on that one, because a comparison of the model gives it away immediately. And while I could have picked a better color scheme and painted them better, I'm glad of the terrible work I did painting them, because in the end, they're decently painted, but in hideous colors that makes it unattractive

Same with my Iron warriors. Every line marine has a chain-bayonet, and most of them are holding their weapons one-handed, and upright. Every heavy weapon is customised and converted... essentially, none of the miniatures could be stolen, as they choesively give off the identical appearance.

My imperial guard aren't even legit IG. The only trouble there comes with the commissars, so they're the only ones I have to keep an eye out for. I advertise from the get-go that they are not by any means GW legal, and it kills interest in my army right away.

My thousand sons are my precious, they are not going anywhere unless i know and trust the people there, because I paid through the nose for those models, even if at less than retail and second hand. too much effort and planning went into those...

apart from ustilising an oppresively obvious theme throughout the entire army, I don't see how else to make your army theft free.

Paranoia much?

I think the best way not to get your army stolen is to melt down each model and reshape it into something roughly the same size as the original.

Never had models stolen, but I have had several sets of dice stolen. Due to this fact, I always put any of my belongings in my car or behind the counter when I am not able to pay 100% attention to them.

Never had anything stolen but I have a few good friends at the LGS and really they are all a pretty tight bunch. Not many new faces so if someone did try and steal something, they'd literally have to run the gauntlet to get to the exit! I always leave my stuff under the watchful care of a friend in a place that is out of the way and would be obvious if someone was messing with it.

My Local GW used to be swarmed by young kids that had a habit of picking up your models.

"Oh that's cool, what is that?"

"Oh it's just my awesome sergeant with a power fist" I say.

"Hey can I have it?"

"No, you cannot."

Later on some models go missing, mine an my friends. I lost a couple of tactical marines (Sergeant was safe). My friend lost a squad of rangers.

Never found out who it was, all the kids have the same squeaky voices, it can be hard to tell them apart. A couple of them were cool, the rest were very annoying.

I've never had anythign stolen thankfully.
closest thing was after i purchased a poorly (thats being kind) converted Rhino to Demolisher tank for $5 I built it into a proper Demlosher tank, sponsons, armor, and all.

The guy i got it from wanted to buy it back as i rebuilt it much better then he could. He offered to buy it back for $20. But i said no. but form then on he would half heartedly start to slowly pull the tank away as if trying to steal it. once or twice it "vanished' and reappeared on top of his boxes (While it clearly had my army colors all over it, no less my construction style). I told him to stop (i take it seriously, its not funny) and i always locked it in my boxes unless it was being fielded to stop it. It was all in humor but its not funny.

As for attempts to break into the car. Its never happened and im paranoid to the point that If im gaming and i bring X number of boxes. I bring them ALL into the store with me. Hell when i went to IHop after a Apoc game, I deliberatly choose a spot that i could see from the resteraunt and a window seat at the same time. I worked hard on the models!

At the same time, I know eveyr tank i have (they are each modified differently and are unique.) so i can always tell if one is missing. As for the many many guardsmen. Its more or less some inate feeling that you just know that one or more is missing, even though they are for the most part the same and there are alot of them, its hard to discribe.

I once had 4 marines go "missing", So I talked to one of my mates in the store if he had seen it before talking to the manager (who would have had everyone empty out their bags and pockets) and it turned out that they had fallen into his bag which was left open. He said that he was very sorry, and I didn't believe for one minute that he had stolen it. So that turned out ok

One case quite recently, was a kid that was a year older than me (he was 14), and he always seemed to get more and more nids every time we saw him (He was known to us as Frizz, because of his curly hair and squeaky voice) and it appeared that he had been stealing from the store. This was after one day, the manager spotted that his bag was packed full of Trygons, Carnifexes and Hive tyrants (about 10 of the large sized boxes, no joking!). He was asked about them, and he said that he ordered them on the GW website, but he had no proof of ordering them.

He was then given the option to have his Parents called, or the police. After that we never saw him again, not least because he had been banned from the store and made to return all the stolen property. TBH Im kinda glad he had to go, because he was always soo annoying and full of himself.

 progreen10 wrote:
I once had 4 marines go "missing", So I talked to one of my mates in the store if he had seen it before talking to the manager (who would have had everyone empty out their bags and pockets) and it turned out that they had fallen into his bag which was left open. He said that he was very sorry, and I didn't believe for one minute that he had stolen it. So that turned out ok

One case quite recently, was a kid that was a year older than me (he was 14), and he always seemed to get more and more nids every time we saw him (He was known to us as Frizz, because of his curly hair and squeaky voice) and it appeared that he had been stealing from the store. This was after one day, the manager spotted that his bag was packed full of Trygons, Carnifexes and Hive tyrants (about 10 of the large sized boxes, no joking!). He was asked about them, and he said that he ordered them on the GW website, but he had no proof of ordering them.

He was then given the option to have his Parents called, or the police. After that we never saw him again, not least because he had been banned from the store and made to return all the stolen property. TBH Im kinda glad he had to go, because he was always soo annoying and full of himself.

I think if I owned the store I would have had him call his parents and then I would call the cops, just to reinforce to the kid that thievery is bad.

brettz123 wrote:


Paranoia much?

given how expensive the hobby is, and how much time and effort is invested in assembly, painting, and then the effort of storing everything safely...... I don't discount that paranoia as unreasonable. If I'm already spending near $1000 of my time, effort, and money on buying, assembling and painting these things, and the bag for safe storage, you bet I'm going to be a bit put out when a snotfaced ratling decides to make off with my plasma gunner.

Never had models go missing, thankfully. I have however had the odd template, dice cube, or gun/bit go missing before.

I can attribute this to how my FLGS works too though. On top of most of the people I play with regularly being trustworthy, the store also offers store credit to anyone who catches someone stealing. This extends not just to store inventory but to peoples models/belongings as well. If you're going to be stand up enough to stop someone who is taking a random persons models seems only fair to get a thank you out of it and thats the store owners way of doing so.

 Wardragoon wrote:

 WaaaaghLord wrote:
One time I came home from a week long holiday to find we'd been broken into, and a bag with a newly purchased Cygnar army had gone missing from our living room. Not sure if this counts as "model theft" as such, as they'd obviously just grabbed the inconspicuous looking hold-all on the way out.

Fair play to PP though, on telling our shop owner what had happened, our local press ganger sorted me out replacement stuff for everything that had been stolen. Above and beyond the duties of customer service.

Wow, more stories like this and I may actually start playing PP games

One of the Press Gangers on a podcast I listened to had his entire Trollblood army lost in a fire. PP not only replaced his army, but gave him a Mountain King as well! Also the same thing happened to a Legion of Everblight player a while back and they did the same.

 poda_t wrote:

brettz123 wrote:


Paranoia much?

given how expensive the hobby is, and how much time and effort is invested in assembly, painting, and then the effort of storing everything safely...... I don't discount that paranoia as unreasonable. If I'm already spending near $1000 of my time, effort, and money on buying, assembling and painting these things, and the bag for safe storage, you bet I'm going to be a bit put out when a snotfaced ratling decides to make off with my plasma gunner.

The thing is I don't see any of your actions being any great deterrent. At the end if the day most criminals are pretty stupid and will take something simply because they think they will get away with it and want free stuff. Some numbnuts will take it and get home, take look at all this bespoke modelling and sigh then stuff it under their bed and forget about it.

It's the same reason they will knick worthless things. Someone once went to the trouble of stealing an old bike I left chained in a store, it was cheap before it went rusty, had two flat tyres and no chain. That said I would still like to wring the dumb fethers neck if I ever found him!

Druid13 wrote:
Never had models go missing, thankfully. I have however had the odd template, dice cube, or gun/bit go missing before.

I can attribute this to how my FLGS works too though. On top of most of the people I play with regularly being trustworthy, the store also offers store credit to anyone who catches someone stealing. This extends not just to store inventory but to peoples models/belongings as well. If you're going to be stand up enough to stop someone who is taking a random persons models seems only fair to get a thank you out of it and thats the store owners way of doing so.

Thats a really good idea. Heck a local Video Game store has issues with thievery, I think something like this would allow them to nail some of the would be thieves

If there's anything I can do to make it harder for someone to nab my stuff, or inconvenience them with once they successfuly steal my model.... yup, I'll do it.

I mean, paint job for 1, because it's not like the gakker at the neighboring table can swipe my blue UM and hide it inside his own UM army; 2, if he paints right over it, there's a lot of explaining to do about why he has such a unique looking marine, and why he fits in so nicely with my army.

It's all tiny stuff, but honestly, if there's something I can do to get my stuff back, and catch the little bastard and have him banned from my FLGS to spare other gamers from this gakker, then, I mean, why not?

 poda_t wrote:
If there's anything I can do to make it harder for someone to nab my stuff, or inconvenience them with once they successfuly steal my model.... yup, I'll do it.

I mean, paint job for 1, because it's not like the gakker at the neighboring table can swipe my blue UM and hide it inside his own UM army; 2, if he paints right over it, there's a lot of explaining to do about why he has such a unique looking marine, and why he fits in so nicely with my army.

It's all tiny stuff, but honestly, if there's something I can do to get my stuff back, and catch the little bastard and have him banned from my FLGS to spare other gamers from this gakker, then, I mean, why not?

My guess is most people would simply steal it leave and strip it. Of course if they are dumb enough to grab a couple marines they might just be dumb enough to hang around for a while. I think the best thing to do is watch your models and put them away when they aren't on the table. When dudes dies you pack them up right away. I never leave a table when I have models on them but thats just me!

I don't think I've had anything stolen but I have lost 6-7 peasants from my brets, and two dice cubes, and one tape measure, and one template set

Also I once stole 4 tactical marines from the Bromly gw starter set by accident. realized at home, I live far enough away that returning them is impossible.

I also accidentally stole my mates necromancer after a game, I gave it back next week, when we meet at a club.

 DukeBadham wrote:
I don't think I've had anything stolen but I have lost 6-7 peasants from my brets, and two dice cubes, and one tape measure, and one template set

Also I once stole 4 tactical marines from the Bromly gw starter set by accident. realized at home, I live far enough away that returning them is impossible.

I also accidentally stole my mates necromancer after a game, I gave it back next week, when we meet at a club.

So you picked it up you mean? Stealing is on purpose

 progreen10 wrote:

 DukeBadham wrote:
I don't think I've had anything stolen but I have lost 6-7 peasants from my brets, and two dice cubes, and one tape measure, and one template set

Also I once stole 4 tactical marines from the Bromly gw starter set by accident. realized at home, I live far enough away that returning them is impossible.

I also accidentally stole my mates necromancer after a game, I gave it back next week, when we meet at a club.

So you picked it up you mean? Stealing is on purpose

I picked it up by accident when trying to collect my 40+ peasants as quickly as possible. completely didn't mean to, I'm absent minded at times

Years ago I was at a FLGS near my house. This guy had a nicely converted custom Tyranid Army. Needless to say I managed to swipe all of them and put them in my-
Wait. Is this the right thread?

 mwnciboo wrote:

dpal666 wrote:
I'm just getting back into 40K because of theft.

Went to a tournet at the beginning of 4th, came in 2nd, won the painting award, figured I was having a good night.
Locked my case in my truck, and went to dinner with some other gamers from the tourney, when we get back, one of my locks is dangling from the truck and my case is missing.

Fairly obvious that it was a gamer, as several tousand dollars worth of stereo equipment wasn't touched.

LGS owner said he'd keep an eye out, and lots of people had pics of the army, but alas, nothing ever found.

Just got back in about 6 months ago, and haven't played outside of my house yet.

MF'ers !!!!!!!!!!!!! You need to post up a picture of that Army so we can keep an Eye on it world wide, if it won the Painting Award no doubt it's distinctive and no one will want to re-paint it.

Maybe Dakka could have a Crime Watch wall, of distinctive Armies for us all to keep on the lookout for? I'm guessing you are far from the only one who has had this.

Twas quite a few years ago, I never did do pics of that army, but all my new stuff gets plenty of pics since I'm doing commissions also.

 DukeBadham wrote:
I don't think I've had anything stolen but I have lost 6-7 peasants from my brets, and two dice cubes, and one tape measure, and one template set

Also I once stole 4 tactical marines from the Bromly gw starter set by accident. realized at home, I live far enough away that returning them is impossible.

I also accidentally stole my mates necromancer after a game, I gave it back next week, when we meet at a club.

Even living far away, did you think about calling them, telling them what happened and arrange to mail the models back to them? That wouldn't be so bad, and karma would be kind to you for your actions.

Druid13 wrote:
Never had models go missing, thankfully. I have however had the odd template, dice cube, or gun/bit go missing before.

I can attribute this to how my FLGS works too though. On top of most of the people I play with regularly being trustworthy, the store also offers store credit to anyone who catches someone stealing. This extends not just to store inventory but to peoples models/belongings as well. If you're going to be stand up enough to stop someone who is taking a random persons models seems only fair to get a thank you out of it and thats the store owners way of doing so.

The manager of your store is a hero in my book. Feel free to offer him a thank you from some random stranger in Gunnison, CO a thank you for doing what's right

Stealing is low, like everyone else has said, but for me the thought of someone stealing is dreadful one, more out of disgust than anything.

I've never had anything stolen from me, despite all the kids who've come up and asked me about the game, and I play with a group of friends who know everybody else very well, so we trust eachother. But if someone ever stole from me, my reaction would vary. If it was an individual model or even up to something $20 - $30, I'd be more pissed than sad about the loss, but I could replace them. Understandably, if the thief managed to get any of my bigger stuff, I would be furious. I'd rather beat the snot out of him with it, than let him get away with it.

However, the one loss I could never contemplate, despite their seemingly less worth are any of my AoBR Space Marines. These were the guys that got me into the game, some of the first guys I painted, I named. I had the best moments with them. Even with better models, I'd take these guys into a game anytime. And the sentimental loss of these models would be beyond the loss the loss of any other model in my army

But I've still got them. and i intend to keep it that way

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 DukeBadham wrote:
I don't think I've had anything stolen but I have lost 6-7 peasants from my brets, and two dice cubes, and one tape measure, and one template set

Also I once stole 4 tactical marines from the Bromly gw starter set by accident. realized at home, I live far enough away that returning them is impossible.

I also accidentally stole my mates necromancer after a game, I gave it back next week, when we meet at a club.

Even living far away, did you think about calling them, telling them what happened and arrange to mail the models back to them? That wouldn't be so bad, and karma would be kind to you for your actions.

Oh. did not think of that.

 poda_t wrote:


apart from ustilising an oppresively obvious theme throughout the entire army, I don't see how else to make your army theft free.

So, you paint poorly to prevent theft?

I had several models stolen.

Tau pathfinder with railrifle, Vect's Prisoner (with hand painteded tattoos on ankle), Imperial Preist (the one with the "I" shaved into his hair),

The female wolfen/worgen/werewolf thing from Confrontation (the unchanged vesion) and my first Typhus.

They were stolen by a fellow named Russ Vicory from Dakka Dakka, he got fired for wearing a tee-shirt from a competetors store and grabbed all my stuff in the display case.

No one's seen him since.

If you should meet this guy or see these beautifully painted models... Stab him. Then say "Chaplain T says Hi."

Tales like this is why I love the Internet.

I too hope Russ Vicory gets stabbed - karma demands it!

I have to admit that last time I checked my bag of GW issue red and black dice contained more than 20 red and 10 black dice, but that probably does not count.

Dice mixing happens, so it's no biggie, man.

EDIT: Steal my scatter die, though, and we'll have issues.

Over the space of 3 games I gained 3 red dice (I had a red dice cube at the time), lost 4 red dice, then gained 1 black die.

couple weeks later and I lost the dice cube (with my 25 red dice and 1 black die)

 Valhallan42nd wrote:
Dice mixing happens, so it's no biggie, man.

EDIT: Steal my scatter die, though, and we'll have issues.

Scatter dice and artillery dice are sacred.

Wow that bummed me out.

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 Valhallan42nd wrote:
Dice mixing happens, so it's no biggie, man.

EDIT: Steal my scatter die, though, and we'll have issues.

Scatter dice and artillery dice are sacred.

Read that as 'scared'

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 Valhallan42nd wrote:
Dice mixing happens, so it's no biggie, man.

EDIT: Steal my scatter die, though, and we'll have issues.

Scatter dice and artillery dice are sacred.

Read that as 'scared'

I can read it, but can You say "scatter dice are scarred, not sacred"? Several times after certain intoxication?

Now, I'd be scared to steal scarred sacred scatter dice...

Nothing stolen, but i have "misplaced" a great number of templates.

GW steals my money all the time.... and they get away with it.



I have not had anything stolen from me but I did leave a 2000 point dwarf army in it's army transport at my Local gaming place, luckily for me it was brought to the front as lost and found and they held it for me when I found out it was still there =)

Not Models but Pokemon card, back in the original 150.
I collected them, I had some nice rare Holographics. Like the evolved form Jiggly puff, I think Mew and maybe even pikachu(a rare one)
I didnt know the concept of stealing so i gave the guy my cards to look at when i went inside for a drink, he lived next door. When i came back they where gone, we talked to hi mom(or grandma) and she said he was too good to do it.
So that night My mom went to the card store and got me japanese cards(I knew all the Pokemon by heart back when it was possible) because i was guaranteed a rare and holographic.

Yeah. I used to play Pokemon with my kid 12+ years ago. Had a couple decks with multiple expensive holo's in them. A couple of the local kids asked if they could see them, then passed them around during a game.
I knew the kids, so trusted them.
Looking at things later that day, I noticed that 8 holos (4 per deck) were gone. Some were first editions. This was when there were only 2 Pokemon sets released, so they were going for $20+ each second hand.

Never let another deck out of my site again, and nobody got to "look at them" except my kids and CERTAIN other adults.

Eric

I learned my lesson with magic. You really have to watch people you don't know. I lost a lot of expensive cards when players would place there cards on top of mine to remove them from play then when the game was over they would scoop both up. Lost a sarkon vol that way :(

 wowsmash wrote:
I learned my lesson with magic. You really have to watch people you don't know. I lost a lot of expensive cards when players would place there cards on top of mine to remove them from play then when the game was over they would scoop both up. Lost a sarkon vol that way :(

I would have......not cared actually , during that set I was running Bant, now if it was Rafiq I would have flipped my lid.

Was more to do with the fact that he was the only planswalker I ever opened from a pack. The others I just bought individually. Made a difference to me anyway.

 Talarn Blackshard wrote:
Nothing stolen, but i have "misplaced" a great number of templates.

I hate to be the guy who says "this", but "this."

I feel your pain, brother. I feel your pain. I'm looking forward to buying Dark Vengeance simply so I'll have another set.

 wowsmash wrote:
Was more to do with the fact that he was the only planswalker I ever opened from a pack. The others I just bought individually. Made a difference to me anyway.

My sympathies, I am that lucky guy who during innistrad pulled two mythics from one pack.

I accidentally took a red die from a guy at Sheffield's GW. Still have it..

I had a full vindicator Linebreaker Squadron nicked from the supposedly locked cupboard at my school...

I have had something stolen once, though I suppose I should take half the blame. The guys at the local gaming place are old friends of mine, so when I started the hobby some 5-6 years ago I bought my first battalion (Orcs & Goblins) from there but left the box at the place so they would leave it at the store window. I had 10 Goblin Spider Riders left in there, still on the sprue. Some months ago they moved to a new place so they asked everyone who had stuff in the place (most of us are friends there) to take them. I didn't, but didn't think something would happen. Eventually, one of the younger kids that had just started, or where thinking of starting, took advantage of the chaos of the move and managed to get away with my box and 10 spiders and was never seen again. Well as I said, I took most of the blame, and never blamed the guys from the LGS.
Not as bad as some of the stories I have read on this thread though.

I have lent out templates that were never returned and kids probably left with them. Not a biggie. I NEVER let my army out of my sight. been gaming 40k since 2nd edition (16+ years). At one of my local LFGS all the kids leave their stuff EVERYWHERE.... all models piled loose into a box. I was disgusted by the lack of treatment of theses expensive models and at the same time worried for the owner that people would steal them. You should never let your models out of your site at a hobby store!

Back when I was 13ish a group of us used to play Magic. There was one guy in our group whos parents scoured New Jersey for every power card he needed. Money was no object. One guy in the group had some rare cards and refused to sell them to the spoiled player. Later that game the cards went missing. We all knew who took them.

The funny thing was when this kid played 40k, we would all just mop the floor with him. He had no tactics. And he couldnt use a Wizard magazine to get a power list to win with like he did for Magic.

I am a firm believer in karma. Never steal !

I have never had any models stolen, but my friend, who introduced me to wargaming, lost 1 DE wych several months ago. We played a 2v2 game with two kids (younger than 12, I think) and after we packed our things she turned out to "have gone". They have already left the store, so there was no way to overtake the lost model. Fortunately it wasn't painted yet - my friend's a pro painter and he spends about 8 hours painting regular troop model.

Another of my friends has a very sneaky method of avoiding dice-mixing. He only uses terrible violet dice, so that no one would ever touch them

Had a satchel of old M:TG decks stolen when I was in gradeschool. lost most of my arabian nights and betas that way. Pretty sure it was the son of the principal, he was a weasel.

 Avatrass wrote:
I have never had any models stolen, but my friend, who introduced me to wargaming, lost 1 DE wych several months ago. We played a 2v2 game with two kids (younger than 12, I think) and after we packed our things she turned out to "have gone". They have already left the store, so there was no way to overtake the lost model. Fortunately it wasn't painted yet - my friend's a pro painter and he spends about 8 hours painting regular troop model.

Another of my friends has a very sneaky method of avoiding dice-mixing. He only uses terrible violet dice, so that no one would ever touch them

I use bright pink chessex. Nobody wants mine either lol

Dice come and go. I've got a huge dice box I use for magic, P&P and all other sort of dicy hobbies, which started with a single d20 about 20 years ago. I am missing a lot of dice I am sure I bought - but on the other hand, I have a lot of dice I know I've never bought, like a pink sparkly d20 or a d6 with smiley faces instead of numbers. That's just the way it goes.

A friend of mine won a store painting competition with a brilliantly painted Astorath. It got put in pride of place in the store's rotating display cabinet.
A couple of weeks later he went to pick it up as he needed it for a game, it wasn't there.
It seems the figure disappeared while another store manager filled in for the regular manager who was on training for a couple of days. Someone just walked up and asked for 'their' figure from the display.
I have to say our FLGS regular manager was as upset as my friend (if not more!) and gave him another Astorath and a box of marines free of charge to compensate him, top chap.

Getting mini's stolen would boil my blood, but its truely worse if they were conversions or not your run of the mill guardsman or marine and were a special character.

While I've never had a mini stolen, I also don't play at the GW store, but rather in the homes of several of my buddies. But I will say we have a guy who likes to proxy, and he often drops our models when he borrows them to proxy ~.~

 notprop wrote:
Going to the toilet in pairs is generally comsidered a female thing.

Well played cincydooley, well played.

Also a "leave a couple people behind to keep the kids from stealing our stuff" thing. But then Ill give credit for the high school grade joke. ::clap clap::

Not (knowingly) had any minis stolen but templates and mini rulebooks tend to get "accidentally" picked up by the wrong people when packing up...

I had much fun threatening to dangle a small light fingered child from an upstairs window of our FLGS when I found the little fether with my templates (sneakily ninja marked by me for this reason) in his case, I was quite glad to be re-united with them. A few months later though my last surviving 5th ed mini rulebook wandered off with somebody else. I bought 4 copies of AOBR so was pretty unhappy that I had to spend the last year or more of 5th ed with NO RULEBOOK. I've bought 2 copies of DV and definitely won't be selling the spare mini rulebook (I've bought the big 6th ed book as well this time so I'll always have that as back up) but fully intend to personalise my mini books to stop the light fingers.

Got to be honest though, any mini-thieves out there, you've got to be brave or stupid as there are some seriously big scary gamers out there (me included ) and you also face the banhammer from your local FLGS if you're not careful. In fact, if I found anyone doing that I'd be sure to pass their details as a "mini-thief" around all the GW stores and FLGS and gaming clubs around the area to ensure they got banned from everywhere.