Finally, a weekend that isn't booked!  So you take the family out to celebrate, leaving your precious video equipment behind.  The crackhead who has just crawled through your bedroom window is appreciative!  As he bags your gear, he figures his favorite pawn shop dealer will give him five or six hundred bucks for the tens of thousands of dollars worth of your gear he's stealing.

 

The scream of your burglar alarm is annoying him and he knows he's got to be gone in under ten minutes.  He's not worried if neighbors take the license number of the stolen car he's using, he's already anticipating his next fix.

 

Our last article talked about some of the problems that allow this situation to exist.  The solutions involve politicians and law enforcement - people who surprisingly may have more interest in perpetuating this environment than in finding a solution.

 

This article will show how you can take action today, to protect your possessions and tools of your trade, and spend less than $300.

 

For years, I've had a passing interest in safes.  I understood that I needed to protect my video gear, but was hesitant to spend over a thousand dollars for a heavy chest when there was always a piece of video or editing gear I was salivating over.

 

Besides, the safes I saw were too big externally, while being too little internally.  Then I stumbled upon gun safes.  We bought one made by Stack-on, that was designed with two sections, each having its own door. 

 

Rifles go on the right while the left section (with shelves) was for pistols and ammo.  But the rifle rests and pistol shelves, like much of the office furniture sold today, was to be customer-installed.  

 

No problem with the pistol shelves.  They were just right for lenses, wireless sets, shotgun mics, etc.  We tossed out the rifle rests and cut some shelving out of plywood.  I set this shelving at heights that would let us store several video cameras and other larger gear, including our laptop.

 

My office is a converted bedroom that has a closet.  I cleared out a space for the safe and bolted it to the wall and flooring studs.

 

Now, maybe a professional, top-of-his-game burglar, could still get my gear, but he'd probably be found cracking a bank or jewelrystore safe where the rewards would be larger (or even more likely, he'd be found in the pennitentary, getting his "just rewards"!).  Your average, everyday, crackhead burglar will likely waste his precious ten minutes cursing your video safe, and probably remove you from his "prospect list".

 

Item available at:  Sports Authority, #964931, model # GC-924 $264.99 

 

We're looking into video equipment insurance, and hope to have an article on this subject within the next couple of months.  If you have anything you'd like to contribute to this (or any other) topic, please write or call. (See our contact page ). 

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.