Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:21 am Posts: 421 Location: Australia
I have never had a stall at a gem show but I do visit certain shows an an annual basis. At these shows you see the regular crowd of vendors that live in the same geographic location and visit more or less the same shows. You get to chatting and know some of these people. Some of the tailgaters and a few of the businesses inside have fallen prey to a pair of thieves.
They typically operate by 'accidentally' knocking a few small item off the desk and picking them all up except for the item they want. this item is concealed under their foot or kicked under the table. Their partner comes along and looks over the table for a while and asks about a few items Before heading on their way stops to 'tie up their shoe lace'. Their partner then distracts the vendor from the guy tying up his lace by asking about another item while their mate pockets the loot.
Several of the vendors have protected their stalls by erecting six inch high perspex barriers or putting inch to inch and a half wooden lips on their tables. This prevents 'accidental' bumping. Anyone wishing to drop something must physically lift it over the barrier which is more obvious.
Maybe no one here vends at shows but if you do here is just another trick to be aware of.
_________________ It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done.
I swear, I too have seen the exact same thing happen at a technology expo. Where 2 thieves tried to pocket a few very costly microchips (used in precision control of CNC milling machines and lathes). The thief however was caught, not by the owner of the stall - But by a watchful lady security attendant.
Don't know if it's really true or just a myth that women security attendants are more effective than men. But on that day, she sure caught the thieves red-handed!
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:13 pm Posts: 5077 Location: Australia
I was warned of the hand bag being put down on top of work. The bottom of the bag is covered with super strong double sided tape. Fortunately never happened to me.
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
Here in the U.S. there are trained groups of thieves that use a variety of diversions to make off with dealers' goods at shows. The cardinal rule for dealers is if you have your inventory in a bag, whether setting up or leaving a show, do not put it down unattended even for a moment, no matter what happens!
The thieves work in groups of 6 or 8 or more and they scope out intended victims very carefully. They know in advance where the dealer's goods are, keeping in touch with accomplices by cell phone. They'll do such things as bump into the dealer and spill a drink on him, then several will rush in at once to help with the clean-up, jabbering and doing everything possible to take his attention off his goods. If the bag is set down even momentarily it will be gone in seconds. An acquaintance lost his entire inventory that way.
A gem dealer friend's business involved taking clients' gems and jewelry on consignment for resale. He always parked his Corvette in a private lot near his office building in Los Angeles.
One dark winter evening he pulled out of the lot and realized he had a flat tire. He parked next to a phone booth, locked his goods in his car and went to call for roadside assistance. While he was on the phone someone kept pounding on the phone booth door, diverting his attention. When he came back to his car he found a shattered passenger-side window and a big rock where the case with his inventory had been. Loss: about $300,000.
This kind of thing goes on regularly with dealers traveling to and from shows. Law enforcement has closed down several of the rings but new ones are always forming.
Stealing by smashing a car's passenger side window just reminded me of something I had seen on YouTube. It is called "Ninja Rock". It's a technique which enables a thief to silently break a car's window. Here are the links of it.
Apparently, the white colored insulator of a car's spark plus is made from Aluminum oxide ceramic. Which rates at #9 on the Mohs scale of hardness. Side windows on cars is usually made of tempered glass (which rates at #6.8 on the Mohs scale). This type of glass is manufactured with very high surface tension, so it instantly shatters into thousands of pieces when shocked.
So when the piece of that spark plus ceramic impacts the glass with considerable velocity - It is just like a Diamond cutting glass, with hardly any noise, (and so hardly any commotion).
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:47 am Posts: 455 Location: Las Vegas
Dealing with the Tweakers (meth addicts) in Las Vegas on a regular basis, we'd find their pockets full of broken pieces of spark plugs. We arrest them for Possession of Burglary Tools if they have even 1 piece. It's pretty amazing, the pieces they use are about the size of a pea. They stand right next the the window and throw it at the window. *&%^ lowlifes
Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:44 pm Posts: 209 Location: Dallas, Texas
At one show years ago we bought a bucket of African ruby opaque corundum crystals the size of biscuits. We placed some in wet concrete in a walkway at the studio. We tell patrons that they walk on our ruby road when they visit. Quite a novelty.Oh you can shadder a car window with a center punch. This is a fireman's emergency trick to rescue souls from a burning vehicle. W
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