Stolen Equipment

Is there any way to search ebay or other online camera "for sale" for
serial numbers on camera bodies and lenses?

We lost must of our equipment out there in a smash and grab from our
alarmed van. The more expensive your equipment is the more of a
target you are and triple check you insurance policy and never let
anything out of your sight.

 

And don't drive a van with window access to the contents in the
back....

 

No. Perhaps it is time to encourage eBay and other such places to
require serial numbers to be posted with ads. That might also keep the
level of fraudulent ads down.

 

I'm wondering if it would ork if someone were to create an online database
where people could, say for a $1, list details of stolen items - that others
could then check?

 

Thieves and fences who sell stolen items on eBay are not going to check
the list; they know where the items came from. And if you buy an item
and find out it is on the list, what are you going to do about it?
Returning it to the legal owner would be the right thing to do, but
good luck getting your money back.

The other thing is that the list is going to fill up rather quickly
with items listed by unhappy ex-spouses and significant others, people
who have had their stuff re-possessed, and others whose claim to the
items in question may not be legitimate.

 

I doubt that would be enforceable by E-bay or anyone else. There would be
nothing preventing thieves from slightly "mis-reading" a serial number when
they post the item for sale (post the serial with a couple of swapped
characters)...and I think its fair to assume E-bay isn't going to travel the
country, checking to make sure the serials match the actual product.

 

The Norwegian photo site Foto.no has a free service where you can
register your photo equippment with serial number. You can report your
equipment stolen, and people that have bought or going to buy used
gear can search on serion numbers.

"Someone" (yes...) should offer this as an international database,
with partners such as eBay, insurcace companies etc -- but it must be
free, because it's very important that a lot of people use it, or else
the service will be of less use.

-espen

 

it would be easy enough to report that the no.s don't match. Could be part
of the reseller ratings process.

 

8<


Similar scheme here in UK.

http://www.menduk.org/menduk_lsp.ikml

"If a possession is lost or stolen you can mark it directly onto the
national Police and second hand trade stolen possession databases, from
your MEND account. The ability to do this is totally unique to MEND."

Sorry this doesn't help the OP, though.

regards
Nigel

 

An armored truck would work.