Real Thieves Loose at GenCon

[Nuclear Platypus]

Too bad Magic cards are nigh untraceable. I could imagine this scenario otherwise...

*Dude walks into RPG store*
"Yeah.. So I have those cards to sell?"
*Owner looks at the cards... Gestures towards a bunch of gamers playing in the store*
"Yeah. About these cards.. See, I know where you got them. Read the report at ENWorld. They got stolen from Mr Gygax's son."
"Gy..Gax?"
*Largest of the gamers who came over interjects*
"Yeah. Gary Gygax. You know, the guy who invented our hobby?"
*Cracks knuckles*
"I.. I found them? Could ya'll.. You know.. Make sure they get back to him? Please?"
*thief flees*

Ahh it's nice to dream.

You left out the +1 Mace.

 

[Mark CMG]

Sad news, Papa G.

 

[airwalkrr]

I don’t let my friendships get in the way of understanding that friend and judging them as 3rd party. if you hadn’t guessed my best friend broke into my house and stole all my stuff (sound system n64 all my games) my stuff had been slowly disappeared before that, and it took awhile for me to figure out who it was, but after I did, looked back and saw all the signs, and I was blinded by friendship. I swore I would never make that mistake again, and I never have. I still have really good friends; Just now I know what to look for when a friend is being deceitful. I look for the inflections in their voice; I watch ... yes I watch for the redirections, even if they are a trusted friend...

Man, I know exactly what you are talking about. My best friend stole everything I own and now parades it in front of me all the time and there is nothing I can do about it. Of course, my best friend is my wife.

Seriously though, that is the height of low to premeditate on stealing from a good friend. Kleptomania is a serious problem with some people and I don't know how they live with it.

 

[airwalkrr]

...Since then I have had books, pencils, and dice stolen...

I put my name, address, and phone number inside all my books. But as for pencils and dice, sometimes there is simply no hope. I mean, can you imagine how many people walk around with 10 cent mechanical Bic 0.5 mm pencils? I don't know the exact number but I imagine it is somewhere between a million and a hundred million. The best I can usually do when I see one lying alone on a table is stand up and ask loudly "Did anyone leave behind a grey mechanical Bic pencil with a blue clip?" If no one answers, I probably keep the pencil and I would expect anyone else who found one I left behind after I'd left the room to do the same. It's more economical than just throwing it away, which is a better alternative than simply leaving rubbish around and hoping the person will come back for it. I wouldn't call that stealing, and if anyone ever later approached me about said pencil I would happily return it.

Now if people are furtively sneaking into your backpack or book bag and stealing your pencils and dice well, that is wrong. But it must be a pretty dumb criminal to try to filch such relatively worthless objects. Especially considering they have virtually no pawn value.

 

[Zander]

Here in the UK, RPG conventions are fairly safe AFAIK. I've seen gamers leave tables full of minis and terrain at Dragonmeet and it all still be there when they got back. At the last GenCon UK, there was a Megadungeon Survivor D&D game. Between sessions, DDMs were left lying around unsupervised without 'disappearing'.

It may be that it's simply because our cons are so much smaller than in the US. It may also be that there's a theft problem among CCGers or GW junkies - I wouldn't know about those as I'm not into them. I've been told that GW have a huge problem with theft from their stores.

 

[Barak]

What, you never saw that guy with the inside of his trenchcoat covered in Bics and mechanical pencils? The penny he sells them for adds up, you know..

 

[amazingshafeman]

My traveling companion had his event tickets lifted by a party member during True Dungeon. He didn't notice until the next day, and, rather than checking TD's lost/found, he just bought generics. Funny thing is he insisted on bringing ALL of his event tickets (and all of his money) with him, because he didn't trust the cleaning staff at our hotel. He's lucky they didn't grab the fat loot in his wallet. Incidentally, nothing went missing from our hotel room at all.

 

[DM_Jeff]

New tale

This is really sad, and something I have been aware of so as to take extra precautions and generally feeling paranoid because of it. So allow me to reenergize gamer faith with this true tale (my wife insisted I post it somewhere, and this seems to be the place...)

We were having dinner at the Alcatraz restaurant with friends last Saturday. Suddenly, my name is being called over the speaker to come to the main desk. Apparently, somewhere, somehow, between going to, and leaving, the bathroom in said restaurant, my wallet went missing. The manager says the dread words…

“We found your wallet. Wait here, I’ll go get it.”

Of course, the whole time my stomach is churning something fierce because, as mentioned, we’re a bit paranoid, and keep separate con funds in different places. Well, the wallet had our food fund. $350 in cash in there. It was a very long minute…

The manager walked up to me and handed it to me. He said “a couple of your fellow conventioneers found it and returned it to us” he said, pointing at my badge showing. I opened it up, and every single bill, credit card, everything, was right in place. I was in awe. “Can you point them out to me?” I asked urgently, wanting to thank them in any way. He looked around, but soon discovered they had paid their bill and left the building. I was shaking a bit when I sat down and was nearly overcome right there.

Whoever did that, by the way, has earned a huge thank you from me and my wife. The con could have come crashing down right there and instead it became one of the best we ever attended.

-DM Jeff

 

[Firebeetle]

I once had my entire MtG and Star Trek CCG collections stolen at church. That's when I learned, if they'll steal at church, they'll steal anywhere.

Sorry your friend lost his entire collection. That really sucks.

A terrible situation. Humans can be so crappy sometimes.

Ditto the church thing. As the son of an organist, I've seen some terrible thefts in church by members or (usually) members' children. My mother had money taken out of her purse once which was all the way behind the organ. Offertory thefts do happen. And yes, you should lock your car. The sad and sorry truth is that otherwise good people will steal if given the opportunity.

I hope he reported the theft. I would contact Gen Con to get a list of exhibitors who buy cards there and see if his list of cards matches any bunch that was bought by these exhibitors. They SHOULD take down information about the seller if they want to avoid problems with the police. When I ran a comic store, I always did. Of course, this guy probably went home with them. I would also see if any Ebay merchant shows up with some of the choice cards. He'll have to move them, and that will leave some sort of papertrail somewhere.

 

[kiznit]

...I opened it up, and every single bill, credit card, everything, was right in place. I was in awe. “Can you point them out to me?” I asked urgently, wanting to thank them in any way. He looked around, but soon discovered they had paid their bill and left the building. I was shaking a bit when I sat down and was nearly overcome right there.

That's an awesome story, Jeff, and definitely shows the counter-side to Gary's sad tale. For every unsympathetic thief out there, maybe there's a good samaritan - and I'd still like to think that our hobby has more of the latter than the former.