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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.