Blank Pages: Stolen Gear Fundraiser
For those of you who don’t know us, we are two brothers in a Christian pop rock band from Indianapolis, IN. On October 4th, $40,000 worth of our equipment was stolen from us. Someone broke the lock on our van, broke the ignition, and then drove off with our van, the attached trailer, and all of the equipment inside of the trailer. Whoever it was got away with approximately 75% of all of the equipment we own. Thankfully, the rest of our equipment was stored inside a different location that morning. Music has had a huge impact on our lives (Blank Pages started when we were in middle school) and we are thankful that we have had the opportunity to pursue music full time and travel doing what we love. We have spent most of our lives working to get to where we are and this has been a devastating blow. We pride ourselves in having worked for all that we have and we wouldn’t normally ask for donations, but we are in need of your help. Any additional money that we raise beyond our initial goal will go towards helping us release some new music we have been working hard on prior to the loss of our equipment. However, our goal with this fundraiser is to be able to replace the equipment that was stolen. Thank you for all of the love and support you have shown to us over the years. We are grateful and blessed to be able to do what we love. Below we have included some additional details about why insurance won’t cover everything, along with a detailed update to fill you in on what has happened over the last couple of weeks.
Insurance
We had a lot of our equipment insured which keeps this all much more manageable, but due to the timing of the theft and a couple of mistakes on our end, not everything will be covered. We recovered the van, but it was damaged (see photos). The cost of the repairs to the van will not be covered by insurance. The trailer has not been recovered and we have a $500 deductible for that insurance policy. The equipment insurance policy has a $100 deductible. We were storing some brand new unreleased merchandise in the van that was not insured or recovered. At the time of the theft, we had a lot of miscellaneous uninsured items in the van for a video we were planning on shooting later that evening, such as suitcases, blankets, clothing, video props, etc. We also just purchased some equipment specifically for the video such as Remo Silent Stroke drum heads, Zildjian low volume cymbals, a new kick drum head, and a new sticker for the kick drum head. We borrowed some cymbals from our church that were also stolen. We failed to get a few pieces of our usual equipment properly insured. Some items were underinsured and a couple of items simply did not get sent to the insurance company. We built some equipment that will be difficult to rebuild and insurance will not reimburse us for what those items are worth. Additionally, we had to rent the necessary equipment to complete the video. We attempted to do everything we could to prepare for the worst, but we are still taking a big loss.
Uninsured:
Van repairs: $2,500
New merch stored in the van: $1,000
Crash cymbal and hi hats borrowed for the video: $400
Remo Silent Stroke drum heads for the video: $100
Zildjian Quiet Pack cymbals for the video: $350
Trailer locks, power converters, van accessories, personal items, etc: $250
Trailer ramps: $40
Miscellaneous tubs and cases: $100
30 feet of truss: $1,000
Entecc DMXIS lighting controller: $200
Dimmer pack: $100
Lighting parts and accessories: $150
Van hitch w/ weight distribution system: $500
Miscellaneous items stored in the trailer such as backup equipment, tools, parts, accessories, etc: $300
Underinsured:
Total of all underinsured equipment is around $2,000
Miscellaneous:
Insurance deductibles: $600
Plates and registration for the van and trailer: $120
Rentals to finish the video: $160
Tow truck for van: $130
Extra payment to video production crew to cover travel expenses for additional day of filming: $100
Total Expected Loss: $10,100
Stolen Gear Update
On October 4th, between 10:00 AM and 2:45 PM, our van and trailer were stolen. All of the doors to the van and trailer were locked, there were no keys in or around the van, and there was no broken glass or other signs of forced entry. Following the theft, the police department had us send them all of our equipment and serial numbers to put into a database to help track the stolen equipment at pawn shops. We did not hear from the police department for several days after the initial contact. We later learned that our case would not be assigned a detective until we had a lead or a witness. After learning this, we worked hard to find our equipment and the people responsible for stealing it.
On October 15th, we received an email that a Carvin TRx3210A speaker had been listed on eBay. We had been on the lookout this specific type of speaker for a couple of years and this was first time we were notified of one being sold. The speaker was being sold from our hometown of Indianapolis and one of the pictures displayed the serial number matching our speaker. We obtained the name of the eBay seller and were able to trace the seller to a wholesale store in Indianapolis. Earlier this year, this wholesale store was found using a stolen trailer which they had spray-painted their name on. They were also found selling the items in that trailer.
We traveled to the wholesale store that night and found our van parked behind the store, but the trailer was not connected. Unfortunately, the van was in bad condition and only a few of our inexpensive items were still in the van. They broke the passenger door lock to get into the vehicle and broke the ignition to start the van. When we found it, there was a makeshift key wedged into the ignition. They also took out the seats, ripped up the floor, broke two mirrors, swapped our trailer hitch for another that is incapable of towing our trailer, removed a panel from the back door, swapped out the license plate, removed the front license plate holder, connected some pieces to the front bumper, and trashed the inside of the van. It looked as if it was being used as a work van. We are still waiting to hear from our mechanic to find out what else is damaged. In the van, we recovered two cables, one shirt that was used as a rag, the base of one mic stand, and a part to another mic stand.
The next day, the police department fulfilled a search warrant of the building without notifying us and did not locate any of our equipment. Later that same day, we learned some information that led us to a couple pieces of our stolen gear next door to the wholesale store. We recovered our two large crank stands, a couple bottles of haze fluid, and two more shirts. Thankfully this was some of the equipment that was accidentally left uninsured. The police department visited this building earlier that day but did not recognize the equipment as stolen because the department had not yet added all of the stolen items to the database. The police may have walked passed other equipment during the search as well.
We are currently waiting on the detective to give us more information about the case. We will keep everyone updated if we learn anything new.
