Help me recoup costs for stolen gear

On September 16th my storage unit was broken into and all my video production gear that I had purchased over the last 10 years was stolen, inclusive of all drones (cinema and FPV), cameras, gimbals, my computer, and even my client's hard drives. Fortunately, my work is backed up in multiple places (if it doesn’t live in 3 places it doesn’t exist!), but the gear is gone. The storage unit security was easily compromised and the thieves were able to steal from 6 other units by pulling the pins out of the door hinges (although I did have a secure lock).

While these are just things, what they stole from me was my livelihood. As a freelance drone pilot and cinematographer, these items allow me to do my job. Although I did have 2 insurance policies, they will not cover the entire amount stolen. Roughly a total of $26,500 of video production equipment was taken, and insurance is only paying out $4,000 of it. We have filed a police report (I did have receipts and serial numbers for 97% of stolen items) and exhausted our resources in a continued search with a private detective. While we do hope the police catch the thieves and I get my gear back, it is highly unlikely; the storage unit facility has been of little help.

Many of my friends and family have reached out asking how they can support me. I hate asking for money, but this loss is a serious one that puts me back to square one. I have learned many lessons through this process and the biggest one is what the meaning of “grossly underinsured” is. If I had the correct insurance coverage all this gear would be covered, but it’s not and that’s on me, that’s my mistake and I am working on a longer video tutorial to help other freelancers understand the importance of insurance to help mitigate any further losses in our community. My deepest why is to leave things better than I found them, and I am taking every lesson (there are a lot!) from this experience to help others and do things differently in the future.

With all of that and a heavy heart, I am asking for your help. With the insurance payouts and money that family and friends have sent thus far, I’m about $20,000 away from being able to replace the stolen gear and get my business back on track. While it would be ideal to hit $20,000 my immediate need is to replace my client's hard drives (totaling $9,000).

Any little bit helps. To anyone reading this, thank you for reading, watching, and being a part of my incredible community.