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Hey guys,

I took up 40k about 2-3 months ago, and I haven't really been down to my local GW many times: Mostly because I want to get EVERYTHING finished (even though I do have a "working" army, plus I enjoy painting most of all...) but also because I've had worried about lugging around something so valuable so many times; it seems to tempt probability.

I know that there aren't many people that would probably want to steal a Warhammer army; but I've seen how malicious muggers can be... being a rather scrawny and unintimidating guy myself; I can quite perfectly imagine a bunch of putrid adolescents throwing my army in the local lake or something.

At any rate; I guess I wanted to probe three things out of the Dakka community:

1. Is theft/willing destruction of Warhammer miniatures common?

2. Does anyone insure their armies? What kind of insurance policies are they covered by? (I.e. Contents Insurance; would this apply if you are walking about OUTSIDE with the army in a suitcase?)

3. Does anyone have any grim horror stories? :-/

Fortunately, I have never had any of my minis directly and maliciously stolen from me. However, I let a friend borrow an Ogre unit for a GT and, before he could get them back to me, his house was broken in to and my Ogres left with his other minis, tv, assorted jewelry, and god knows what else.



Ghidorah

Ghidorah wrote:Fortunately, I have never had any of my minis directly and maliciously stolen from me. However, I let a friend boprrow an Ogre unit for a GT and, before he could get them back from me, his house was broken in to and my Ogres left with his other minis, tv, assorted jewelry, and god knows what else.



Ghidorah

Really? I do hide my minis if I'm not working on them (in boxes..) but would've thought that burglars would leave 'em alone... well, perhaps they'd take something big and ornate like a Bloodthirster; but really, 40k can't have too great a resale value? Or at least, when it can... would non-hobbyists know about it? :S

I find carrying a large Bowie Knife strapped to your thigh and having tattoos of scantily clad women and skulls and suchlike will intimidate would-be-ne'erdowells.

Srsly though, I don't really have that much of a problem with worrying about thievery. That may be attributed to me not getting out much to game with people outside of my gaming club, but walking from the car to the FLGS shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Rico.

I have heard a few cases of people's stuff being stolen out of their car, or from a shop (while it was closed) or from their house.

I have no idea what the chance is of you getting burgled and it varies a lot depending on where you live and so on.

Your collection of figures can be put on your household insurance, or you can insure it separately as a specialist collection. There are insurers that specialise in collectable items.

Talk to your insurance company or a broker to find out your options.

You'll have to make a list of everything your own so if it does get stolen you can claim. With a digital camera this is easy.

The cost of painted items can be insured by reference to professional painting services.

Your insurer may not accept a high valuation of your painted figures if they aren't up to service standard.

Kilkrazy wrote:I have heard a few cases of people's stuff being stolen out of their car, or from a shop (while it was closed) or from their house.

I have no idea what the chance is of you getting burgled and it varies a lot depending on where you live and so on.

Your collection of figures can be put on your household insurance, or you can insure it separately as a specialist collection. There are insurers that specialise in collectable items.

Talk to your insurance company or a broker to find out your options.

You'll have to make a list of everything your own so if it does get stolen you can claim. With a digital camera this is easy.

The cost of painted items can be insured by reference to professional painting services.

Your insurer may not accept a high valuation of your painted figures if they aren't up to service standard.

Thanks

I'll look into it... I'm curious because I figured I'd take them with me to University (I've promised not to take my Desktop; so I'll need *something* to do ;&gt

The GW that I sometimes go to got broken into earlier this year.

Alot of the staff armies were stolen but they they left everything else. They also graffited and pissed on the wall.

Years ago, maybe 1993-94. During my first foray into 40k a friend of mine had a really nicely converted and custom SW army. He took it to gencon for a weekend of D&D and 40k and his minis case was stolen while he was playing D&D. It was sitting right next to him and someone walking by must have just grabbed it and kept walking. He never saw anything, nor did anyone that was at the table.

He had a really nice table in his basement and allowed the rest of our small gaming group to continue using it, but he never played anymore, being upset over the loss of so much time and love, more so than the money spent on the models I believe.

I haven't been in contact with him in many years. I hope he maybe got back into the hobby at some point. His SW army inspired me to make my first army SWs. Maybe he's anxiously awaiting the new SW releases.

I got my first SM army stolen at my local GW. I had about a 5000 point army and a lot of forge world stuff. What made it even worse was that most of my army was given to me. I lost over $2000.00 worth of stuff. Recently I also got my IG codex stolen at the same place, now I never ever am going back to that GW it's just not safe. Plus better safe then sorry.

I've heard of cases being stolen due to thieves thinking it's a gun case.

Robber opening that case up and "WTF?!"

Unfortunately, if you find your items missing it's either usually a fellow gamer (who would know the value of your items) or someone followed you home . . .

Uriels_Flame wrote:I've heard of cases being stolen due to thieves thinking it's a gun case.

Robber opening that case up and "WTF?!"

Yeah, I would imagine that the vast majority of stolen GW stuff is a case of mistaken identity. All the thief sees is a nice case, and he's probably thinking it's got a firearm or expensive electronics inside. In fact, I've heard of some people getting their miniatures back by simply checking out local dumpsters and garbage cans after an incident, since typical thieves will open the case in a nearby alleyway to lighten the load and check out their score. After finding just minis, some of them will simply chuck them in the nearest bin.

Unfortunately, if you find your items missing it's either usually a fellow gamer (who would know the value of your items) or someone followed you home . . .

Then there's this. I think if your stuff gets stolen at a Con or a gaming store, the thief knew exactly what they were taking and you're screwed. Unless your stuff is heavily converted or otherwise distinct in some sort of way, a quick strip or a few passes of an airbrush and you'd probably walk past your own stuff the very next day without even knowing it.

Most insurance companies will insure the retail value of your collection under your homeowner's/renter's insurance within reason. Remember, though, that you may have to pay a hefty deductible making the claim not worth the hassle. For more comprehensive and complete converage, you'll need to pay an additional fee and have a rider on your policy that gives a more exact valuation of the property being insured. I heartily recommend it if your collection is large and would be difficult to replace.

We don't have any problems at the store I go to. It's pretty frequent to see people just leave their armies in the open while they go next door to grab a burger or something.

I have met a few people in the past though that I wouldn't trust my models with alone. And we always had a problem back in Japan with other people (non-gamers) maliciously wrecking our terrain when it was left in a dormitory common room.

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=71262&hl=

Check out this horror story!

the_Armyman wrote:

Uriels_Flame wrote:I've heard of cases being stolen due to thieves thinking it's a gun case.

Robber opening that case up and "WTF?!"

Yeah, I would imagine that the vast majority of stolen GW stuff is a case of mistaken identity. All the thief sees is a nice case, and he's probably thinking it's got a firearm or expensive electronics inside. In fact, I've heard of some people getting their miniatures back by simply checking out local dumpsters and garbage cans after an incident, since typical thieves will open the case in a nearby alleyway to lighten the load and check out their score. After finding just minis, some of them will simply chuck them in the nearest bin.

They should realize right away that they haven't scored a gun. Most army cases could be lifted with one finger, regardless of its capacity.

I'm not worried about thevery at my FLGS, its a good place. I'm much more paranoid about leaving them at the FLGS when I leave so I always have to double check after I pack my army up.

The closest i've come to losing my army would be when i put the case on the roof of my car, so that my hands were free to unlock the door and put away my bag. Then i almost drove off with it still up there.

As for theft i'd say it's likely that a couple of models have been taken, even if just by mistake, but no more than i've lost through forgetfulness and plain dumbness.

Ridcully wrote:

the_Armyman wrote:

Uriels_Flame wrote:I've heard of cases being stolen due to thieves thinking it's a gun case.

Robber opening that case up and "WTF?!"

Yeah, I would imagine that the vast majority of stolen GW stuff is a case of mistaken identity. All the thief sees is a nice case, and he's probably thinking it's got a firearm or expensive electronics inside. In fact, I've heard of some people getting their miniatures back by simply checking out local dumpsters and garbage cans after an incident, since typical thieves will open the case in a nearby alleyway to lighten the load and check out their score. After finding just minis, some of them will simply chuck them in the nearest bin.

They should realize right away that they haven't scored a gun. Most army cases could be lifted with one finger, regardless of its capacity.

Ever picked up a standard GW case packed with metal minis? My IG case with Steel Legion minis could easily be mistaken by weight with a handgun.

By "Most army cases" i obviously meant the ones packed with metal miniatures. I apologize.

I know someone whose Imperial Guard was stolen from his girlfriend's backroom. About 2000 points with a lot of OOP models, all painted to a high standard...

believe it or not but i live in new york city crime is fairly high their and i haven't had any problems with theft except when i entered a painting competition and i had 2 terminators stolen from my display so that pissed me off but other than that its fine i even leave my army case in GW when i am there and i get hungry i go to a diner and leave the case next to the door and its never been stolen(left there for 30-45 min

Back in '96 I had 2000pts of Wood Elves stolen (they WERE in a hardshell CAMERA case though, which may have had something to do with it).

A mate of mine had his case swiped while on the train home (2000pts of CSM in '97) - but he had nodded off as well.

Here's a thread I started about insuring models a little while ago. It may be of some interest?
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/233705.page

My minis arnt worth stealing so not worried .
The last person that stoled from me was beaten up by 5 guys ( no i did not tell them to , though he should be thankful i went along
and told them to stop ) Surprisingly we found he stole other people's stuff as well. Not too sure if it serves him right or not...

Your minis are most at risk in the car (where thieves might think the case has a laptop or something (or a gun in the states)) and at gaming conventions (where people know what they're worth and are relatively anonymous).

A friend of mine had a complete Warhammer Dwarf army (all metal - this was before decent plastics for warhammer) stolen at a convention. From a locked storage unit that only convention staff had access to.

Sorry I can’t access any links shown, so forgive me for any repetition from previous info given.

You should check your home insurance; it will obviously cover theft from your home up to certain limits on individual items (commonly £1,500 per item). I know my collection of games and miniature would far exceed this value if deemed to be a single collection, so it is well worth checking. This would be less the excess value; £75 on my policy, no good if some one swipes a couple of mini's but not an issue if several thousand pounds worth of possessions went missing!

You may also find that on most standard policies it will cover you on some items away from the home up to a certain value (mine is £1,500, less excess) and for thefts from cars. This will have exclusions for certain items; bikes for example will be additional to most policies. If your policy states that you have away from home cover, you should then contact your insurer to double check coverage for your mini’s, and if your collection is particularly expensive then you should register that fact with the insurer.

Naturally as with any insurable item of significant value you should photograph it for your records (proof of purchase/possession) along with keeping receipts; although this should be less necessary given the widely available price information.

Naturally this all assumes that this is your insurance policy for your home, this not being the case then I would check with your parents and see what they think, they may not want to cover the risk under the home/contents policy and may wish to get additional cover for collectables. From my own experience, I had a bike stolen when I was younger and my Dad chose not to claim because paying the excess, loss of no claims bonus and higher future insurance costs far out weighed the expense of buying a new bike (£150) for me

what if you painted "THIS ISNT A GUN - ITS A HOBBY" on your case to eliminate the chance of someone stealing it thinking its a gun.

<sarcasm>

anyway, im sure with some clever thinking, you could put a lock on your carry case with the use of a drill and a few metal parts, could work...

I had $600+ of Steel Legion stolen in two GW Cases......I know the mini's so if you out there and I spot them......you best run.

Gutteridge wrote:what if you painted "THIS ISNT A GUN - ITS A HOBBY" on your case to eliminate the chance of someone stealing it thinking its a gun.

<sarcasm>

anyway, im sure with some clever thinking, you could put a lock on your carry case with the use of a drill and a few metal parts, could work...

Of course, you could argue that the lock makes it more desirable to steal (since it's presumably valuable and most locks aren't difficult to cut off)...

Local news story from a long time ago had a guy getting his car repeatadly broken into to take his stereo. He eventually gave up on having a stereo and left a note to this effect on the window. Allegedly, the thieves broke the window and left a note that said "just checking".

I have had my stuff stolen, one or two models by a local kid wanting an army. My homeowner's policy covers collectibles and having around 25k points of models I triple checked that they were covered.

P.S. I have heard horror stories from the older gents at my FLGS, one or two were break-ins, one mugging but the thief also took his wallet, (Baltimore-05) and while a friend was in Iraq the Humvee carrying his army hit a mine, the driver was fine, and was not insured. ( last one was more of an Insurance thing but 8,000 points in orks gone is gone either way. )

just had my "shed" at the bottom of the garden burgled. The thieves ignored all my 40K and fantasy stuff (8 armies, thousands of points, not sure how much to replace, can you even put a price on some of your models?) Instead of my minis they took 2 old guitars, one very old and buzzy electric bass and an old 6 string electric that no longer worked (probably worth about £50 together). I was so releived I almost didnt bother to report it! Now I am getting 2 new guitars (that work) from my house insurance and the cretin that broke in left his fingerprints all over my window and is being arrested Like it really is an ill wind that blows nobody any good..