Don't Let This Happen To You!!!

And it probably won't......because I'm sure most forum members carry some substantial home/rental insurance. I (like a dumb ass) forgot or neglected to take care of my investment and have paid the price dearly. This past Friday night, some speed addict ripped the bars off no less than two windows before entering my apartment to drink one of my homebrews and rob me for 300 discs. I'm devastated. Here is a list of just the golds I lost:

 JETHRO TULL
 PAUL MCCARTNEY (4)
 CREAM (4)
 QUEEN
 HEART
 OTTIS READING
 AL GREEN
 ROY ORBISON
 EVERLY BROTHERS
 POLICE (UDI)
 MOODY BLUES (UDI)
 STEELY DAN
 STEVE MILLER
 BOZ SCAGGS (mfsl)
 JAMES BROWN
 DAVID BOWIE (Station and Young)
 COUNT BASIE
 SUPERTRAMP
 TODD RUNDGREN
 EAGLES (2)
 BLIND FAITH
 TRAFFIC
 JIM CROCE

I've been trying to regroup. Has anyone been down this road? I've even thought of taking out a large loan and just paying whatever it takes to replace the whole collection and forget it ever happened. Funny, I was just thinking last week, prior to the event, that I wouldn't own half of these discs if it wasn't for such a great resource like this forum and it's members. Thanks to all for the great info. I WILL REBUILD!!!!!!

 

I'm really sorry to hear this.

When I saw your post starting, I thought you would be telling us that equipment was stolen, but this is even worse and possibly irreplaceable. Sorry for your loss.

Best to you, Ron

 

Sorry to hear about that Carl.Your CD's might start turning up at a local used record store or flea market.

 

Carl,

I dedicated a moment of silence in my home to your loss.

I would take Henry's advice and if you have any pawn or second hand shops, check them as well. Do it quickly though, time is of the essence in this sort of predicament.

I wish you all the luck in the world my friend.

 

I've been walking around in a daze for days. Ron, you are soo right, it's FAR worse than any simple loss of equipment. We all have much more invested in the music and the time it takes to hunt it down than we really know till something like this happens. I spent all day saturday running to every record store in town with my list with a glimmer of hope. Fingers are stilled crossed..... but I know my chances are slim.

 

Sorry to hear about your situation Carl. I hope that it all works out for you!

 

One really weird karma thing that happened during this event that I forgot to mention (Dave, you will appreciate this) the jackass left a few discs strewn on my bed and one happened to be my copy of "DSOTM" UDI. I couldn't believe it.......the holy pearl left behind!!!!

 

Wow, that's amazing! Do you really think that he knew what he was getting? He may know now, but did he know at the time?

 

Phew! You sure got lucky on that one.

Even though those 4 McCartney's are no slouch either.

Was the Heart album DCC or MFSL? Were the Blind Faith and Boz Scaggs UD1's?

 

Dave- Heart was the incredible DCC "Dreamboat Annie". Both Scaggs and Blind Faith were UDI's (thanks in no small part to your direction). I still have the first two McCartney's, but had just completed the set with his last four.

 

I am very sorry to hear that; I realize how difficult replacing most of those discs is going to be

 

Thanks SVL......funny, I just sent a message two minutes ago to a good friend living in Kiev. This internet thing is great!!! Who needs a therapist when you got friends?

 

This did happen to me on a smaller scale about ten years ago. Thankfully, the guy DID pawn them off at a local shop and I was able to buy back my CDs. The reason I didn't file charges? He was my nephew who didn't have a job and said he needed to stock up on some cancer sticks!

 

Sorry for ya! May the creep get instant karma! You must be devastated and confused. These Gold DCC's become family as inanimate as they may be. Best of luck in replacing them. They will all be replaced with time and patience.

 

My condolences.

 

The used CD shops around here require a driver's licence when you sell ot trade in cd's. They then hold them in the back room for a week before they get put out for sale. I would advise you to seek them all out in your area!

 

I'm sure we all feel your loss very deeply.

This is a frequent daynightmare for us and a real everyday danger.

Do consider it could be someone you know, someone you may have explained the value of those particular CDs.

 

I have two good friends, a couple originally from Kiev, who are now living in Seattle. Not doing very well, I am afraid - both were recently laid off by a company called Getty Images in WA .

 

To me, this is the worst sort of crime. Invading a man's home and stealing his music. I only wish you would have caught him in the act. If I ever catch someone touching my records, they would most likely have a wild animal to deal with----me! If you find this guy, kick his teeth in!

 

I had something like this happen to me before, except it was an opportunist thief who stole some of my musical instruments which were on loan to a friend at a local studio (he also had a lot of stuff stolen).

It makes me so mad that there are people who steal from others like this. I'm deeply sorry for you - I sincerely hope the person(s) who did it gets caught and your CD's can be retrieved.

Some suggestions (apologies if you've already done this): contact all the dealers in your area and check with them to see if they have been offered a CD collection recently and tell them what you had stolen. Get your list printed up and take it round. You may also want to email it or post it to some dealers that might be approached by the culprit who are outside of your area. It may also pay to look in local area newspapers for adverts that look like they might be your CD's up for sale. Keep your eyes on Zshops and Ebay too, for anything that might look suspicious.

What about the police? Do they not think they can catch the person(s) who did this??? Have there been other burglaries in your area which the police might be able to link this to?

 

back in the day, when i worked at a local mom & pop record store, we would occasionally get a visit from the police with a list of stolen cd's.

be sure you report it and take the advice of checking out the used shops. but you must do it quickly.

renny

 

Really sorry to hear this Carl.

What really makes me angry is that your CD's mean nothing to the guy that stole them...it's just a means of making quick money.

It happened to me almost 13 years ago now...200+ CD's but they left one or two rare gems behind. Luckily I was insured and replaced as many as I could over time. ..

Most people don't understand the sheer love and effort that goes into building collections such as we have around here...it's an everlasting journey for most of us!

At least you'll have fun building that perfect collection once more...but I do feel for you and it hurts (OUUCHH!!)

 

I'm sorry for you also, Carl.
Don't forget to check Ebay. A lot of stolen stuff ends up there.
Good luck!
dennis

 

I can empathize with you. About 4 and a half years ago I came home from working 2nd shift to find my apartment door broke off the hinge. They took a VCR, pushed around stuff where the TV should have been (I already had pawned that because I grew to hate TV in the 90's), a few other nick-nack items that were easily replaceable, and several hundred of my CD collection that I kept in those convinient 60 CD storage racks. I gotta tell you that the hollow devastated feeling is something I experienced firsthand that night. I made me wonder if I shouldn't buy a big 32 inch Sony as a decoy.

The funny (or not so funny) thing is, even back then I usually keep my Gold CD's and any CD that I think might become collectable in zip lock storage bags in a box in a closet. The only Gold CD's that wound up being taken were MFSL Pink Floyd DSOTM & MFSL Queen NATO (don't know if they were UDI or UDII because I didn't look at that kind of thing in thouse days). I think I listened to those two titles in the previous day. Obviously the Queen disc has been replaced with the DCC Gold CD.

I didn't have any renters insurance. I since have gotten renters insurance, but I'm not sure that those CD's would be replaced at their proper value. Heck, I tried to explain to an agent that most of my Gold CD's were purchased in the $30 a piece range, and I thought he was going to tell me I was nuts. He kept talking about them like they were $12-15 and can be bought at any store.

I think the bastards were in and out of my apartment so fast that I think they just grabbed stuff that was convenient, and even then they weren't smart enough to know what was really valuable. Sounds like they lingered in your home.

Its another reason why I got into DIY audio. If my apartment ever gets broken into again, I wonder if the they would be smart enough to take a single ended triode vacuum tube amp. I never really had any decent equipment to listen to my music on back then.

The other thing is that since then, the very first thing I do when I acquire a CD that I don't want to lose is burn a copy of that CD. I believe Steve said that even doing that changes the tone of the disc, but if some ***hole takes my CD's again, at least they won't get my music. I also keep lights on in every room of my apartment when I leave to try to make it look like someone is home.


I don't mean to make you feel worse than I'm sure you already do, but even 4 and a half years later, every time I reach for a CD to put in my player I think about the CD's that I lost in that break-in, and probably will for the rest of my life. Every time I buy a CD, whether its something I never owned before or something that's a direct replacement I still get angry deep inside. I have rebuilt to a large degree, but even though I've repurchased a lot of those CD's I find the flavor of the moment to be different. Also some of the disc's are different remastering's, etc. Some stuff is inevitably out of print, even in the aluminum CD world, ETC. Even though I owned fewer Gold Audiophile CD's back then, I think if you looked at my music collection 5 years ago you could probably tell what kind of guy I am. It evolved thru high-school, United States Army, College, two or three years of living out of a motel room for the company that I work for, etc. I think of girlfriends and other people who were with me in the store when I bought certain music and tried to make them understand why I liked something (and they sometimes thought I was nuts). No matter how much you try to deny it, peer pressure does play a role in the items we buy. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Now when I look at my music collection I wonder if anyone would have any idea who I really am. I sometimes wonder if the reason why my audiophile Gold CD collection has grown since then is that somewhere in the back of my mind is a defiance of the bastards who broke into my home and not because I enjoy the music or the sound thats on them (is that insanity or what). I've spent a lot of money on music since then, and the number of CD's I own is probably closing in on where it was before the break-in. But my music collection will never represent who I am the way it used to. They might as well have amputated an arm. Or erased some very happy memories right out of my head. Sorry, I'm sure thats not what you wanted to hear.



I'm sorry for the loss of your property.

 

Ditto on the advice to take a list to used CD shops. You generally don't see big collections of gold discs being sold without raising an eyebrow. Combined with your list, an attentive clerk might just be able to bust this guy for you.

Best of luck.

Ryan