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...and now the house next door is on fire. I just got the call. Luckily, my favorite guitar is at my buddies house.

Sorry to hear about the break in. That totally sucks! What did they get away with so we all can be on the lookout?

Back at the tail end of my MTB Racing career, my bike was ripped off out of my garage at the begining of the season. Season was long gone before I was able to get my insurance settlement and get a new bike. I feel for you man

they didn't get anything but my fast track responder and my favorite shades. I got a call from the walnut creek police and they found some of my stuff.

I do still need to do the DMV stuff though.

I had a garage break-in a couple of years back, while I was away on a business trip. A neighbor alerted ny wife that the garage door was hanging open - it was during the day. The main part of a PA rig went (well mixer, amp and speakers). Almost all my tools. My buddies set of tools he had left there too. A Black & Decker workmate still in its box. And various other stuff. Insurance didn't cover the whole cost, as apparently they don't give full cover on garage contents.

Sorry to hear about that. I think that we've all been there at one time or another. Losing the stolen items is bad, but the worst is the icky feeling of being violated. Yuk.

I don't know what it is, but I seem to attract weird criminals. I've been pretty lucky with break-ins, only two in the last 10 years, one each in my car & home. The house break-in was about 3 months ago & they got my TV, VCR & DVD player, and 8 DVDs out of about 200. They ignored my guitars, amps, computers and the really popular DVDs. But the DVDs they took were my film noir. ?????!!!!!. Touch of Evil, The Third Man, The Lady From Shanghai, Kiss Me Deadly, The Long Goodbye, Kansas City Confidential, etc... How 'ya gonna sell those off?

But weirdest was a backpack full of college textbooks taken from my car about 9 years ago. A week later I was parked in the same block where the break-in occurred & the guy broke into my car AGAIN. He didn't take anything, but he gave back one of the books, complete with his own notes in the margins. Made a point of putting the book on the driver's seat so that I'd notice that he'd given it back.

Is it a UK Insurance thing that garage contents are not covered on home owners policies? I have this happen more than just once and it has been covered in all instances. Back in MN I had parts stolen off my snowmobile that was stored behind my garage, had tools stolen from garage, and my MTB. Now I carry policies on my valuables to avoid any BS. I have also had my car broken into a few times, luckily only once did my dash get ripped apart for my stereo. It's amazing how expensive it is to fix the interior of almost any car.

WHOAAA ROACH MAN!!! That's just too damn weird...

dartanion wrote:Is it a UK Insurance thing that garage contents are not covered on home owners policies?

No it's a small print thing. Insurance companies will try every trick they can to beat each other's prices ultimately at your expense. The garage contents were covered, but only to a $5000 limit, which only covered about half the new value of what we'd lost. Still we did splash out and get some new tools and PA. Just not quite as much as we had before. No one stores their stuff in my garage anymore...

I have a couple of large dogs...this seems to keep the riff-raff at a distance.

Insurance companies are out to lure you in with low rates on these suspect policies. You need to be aware of what kind of coverage you need, and request quotes for that spec. Then price shop. I searched long and hard for my current guitars and there's no way that I wouldn't insure them. Heck they have been an excellent investment, so it makes sense to protect it. If you are honest with your agent and tell them about what you have that is valuable, they will tailor a policy to cover their replacement. Best thing is that these policies are usually pretty inexpensive. I think ours was about $40/yr., but is now part of a different policy package.

Maybe you should consider an Irish Wolfhound

I don't have big dogs, just loud dogs.

I used to be an insurance agent here in TX, and I'm not sure, but I think there might be a limitation on coverage in detached buildings, like a detached garage. I know if the detached garage was more than 10% of the value of the house you would have to make sure your agent ups the policy coverage.

Another thing to know: your theft coverage covers items away to home to a certain limit. However, this generally doesn't work for items used for business. I'm not going to say what you should do with that information.

Bear

Sweetwood that sucks. My drill press was ripped off a couple weeks backs
no sign of it yet and I'm not holding my breath. I was on this board while it happened, went out for a couple logs for the fire and the piece of lint had made off with it.

May be a bit extreme but I HATE PEOPLE THAT DO THESE THINGS!!!

A buddy of mine got a guitar stolen from his lviing room. he went to all the local pawns with pictures and his info. A week later it turned up in a pawn downtown and the pawn shop guy called him and the police. To be short he got it back a week later after pounding the pavement.