I went to my local Hobby Lobby the other day to pick up a few model railroading items, and while there, saw three N scale train sets that someone had opened and stollen the locomotives out of… This is not the first time I’ve seen this. Why don’t these people put these sets in locked glass cases so that the general public can’t touch them without assistance of a store clerk ?. You would think that after having this done enough that store management would have wised up by now… I love model railroading, but would never stoop to steal things. [:(]
evidently someone was after something specific. Only 3 loco’s and no wagons would suck running in an oval. They probably get more business if people can look at them and handle them. Plus you would need more staff to open the door all the time.[tdn][tdn][tdn][tdn][tdn][tdn][tdn][tdn][sigh][banghead]
but it is disgusting, especially when the store needs to recoop it’s loss and ups the price on other train stuff
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It’s sad when we have to lock everything up. I’m not a moral crusader by any means but in the old days that stuff just wouldn’t have happened. I stole one thing when i was too young to know it was wrong. My parents made me take it back, apologize, I got a butt whoopen, and I was made to remember that incident well. I’m still extremely ashamed of it. But i think i am better becuase of it. Just the other day my college bookstore didn’t charge me for one of my books. I called them and told them and gave them my credit card # right away. Sorry for the rant but it just seems that the concept of parenting and values has went out the window. There is essentially section 8 housing next to the model railroad club that I belong to. I showed one of the kids around the layout and the first thing he has to say is will you buy me one. If I had said that to a stranger I wouldn’t have been able to sit for a week. My parents were rarely the spanking type but when I did something really wrong I knew about pretty darn quick. Before anyone asks, I’m currently 19.
The Hobby Lobby stores here remove the locomotives from their N scale sets, and if someone wants to buy the set, the manager will retrieve the loco from a back room. Are you sure this isn’t what really happened?
Personally, I appreciate when a hobby shop has the guts to put as much of its merchandise, even N scale freight cars and other small parts, out in the open. The dealer is taking a risk by doing this, but it allows the customer to examine the product and have a better idea if he wants it. And ultimately, it leads to more sales. If I have to ask for something out of a case, I am less likely to buy it.
No AltonFan, they were stollen. I pointed it out to one of the store employees who was unaware of the theft. Afterward, they pulled the sets off the shelf and said they wi***hey’d caught the person in the act so they could have filed shop lifting charges on them.
One of the hobby shops that I do a lot of business with has everything locked up in cases, and won’t allow you to handle anything unless there’s someone there to assist you. At first, it struck me as them being a little overly paranoid, but after seeing how much theft actually goes on out there, I’ve come to fully understand their reasons…
Hey!.. That thief was exercising “Personal Choice” You can’t go prosecuting him/her…
Haven’t tried this idea yet… but… for some of my more expensive locos / favourites I’ve thought of going to the vet and getting them ID chipped like my dog…
Unfortunately, the dealer has to factor this into his overhead. So in the end the customer pays for this. Most hobby stores, I go into have the locomotives and other high ticket items under glass and the sets are mostly behind the counter.
I moved into a new neighbourhood a few months ago and we thought we’d beautify the front garden a bit. My wife planted some nice plants and we put four solar lights out there to make it nice at dusk. Within days someone had not only stolen one (only one??) of the solar lamps, but dug up one of the plants. Not ripped it out, carefully dug it out so there was a hole there the next morning. Who does this??
My LHS makes it very clear that they have cameras all around the store and you can see yourself on camera when you walk in. If something goes missing, chances are they can find a photo of the culprit. They also have most locos under glass to reduce the risk further. I don’t blame them and they are attentive enough (usually) to help me if I need help.
No need - Model Rail magazine reviewed a system a while ago to security mark locos (and anything else) - you get a pot of PVA glue-type stuff with microdots in it which you paint onto the underside of the loco (it dries almost invisible but will show up under UV light) and also a single transponder unit (it looked a little like a vitamin capsule or similar item) that you can conceal in high-value items. Theoretically police would be able to wave a reciever past this and it would respond with a unique code number. I’ve not seen it advertised recently but if it still exists this would be a good way to do this.
My local HobbyTown USA has all of their N Scale items in a locked glass display area. They used to have every HO locmotive they had under the glass as well, but now that they have a larger stock(They opened last Christmas), they only put the Spectrum, Atlas, BLI, etc. locomotives under the glass.
give us a link if/when you find it please… would polic have scanner… they do for pets…
uspscsx… great pic… love the ballast ! [:D]
I go with the Quaker who heard a burglar in his house… he eased down the stairs, flipped the light on and said “Friend, I do not wi***o harm thee but thou art standing where I am about to discharge this shotgun…”
I know the feeling, someone stole a concrete deer out of our front yard, just the other day, I was smashing soda cans down to recycle, I had 2 decent sized bags done, I still had 4-6 bags left to do, someone must have walked threw our alley, untied/unlocked our back gate, stole just the smashed cans, and even tied the gate back, I was PO’d to say the least. I also had sold a business to an individual recently, they took all the payments that the business generates, pocketed it, billed out in advance of the next quarter, didin’t pay any of the bills, lied about switching accounts etc, I have another mess on my hands. I am at a loss for why people feel in-titled to take what doesn’t belong to them, or why they feel lying is a way to avoid the truth. [V][V]
First,I use to work in a hobby shop…So with first hand knowledge I can assure you there are modelers that steal anything from packs of couplers to a Kato engine…I have seen car kits returned that had the doors missing or the truck packet missing…I seen detail packets removed from locomotives.So to combat this problem we shrunk wrap the engines and cars.Guess who paid for that?
When they take prayer out of our schools, at pre-game sports events to protect the players, and the 10 commandments out of public places and our courts, what else CAN you expect? They have NO FEAR of man nor God, so everything goes as long as they don’t get caught.
David Foster, I wish I could find the article - I tried searching for “Model Railway Security Marking” on google and got pages of unrelated stuff (mostly shops talking about their secure servers!). The old UV marker pens might be a good bet if you can write small enough to postcode the underside of cars, locos, etc as they’re cheap enough and pretty effective. The problem is the thing that goes AWOL is the item you’ve not marked yet (some low-life stole one of our bicycles a couple of weeks ago, unfortunately we never got around to noting the frame number or marking it anywhere - funnily enough they ignored a high-specification Giant mountain bike and took a cheap Saracen one that was locked to it, dumb thief of the year award goes to that wally!)
I know you meant well with your reply grayfox1119, and I do agree with you 100%, but we’re not even allowed to discuss things like this on the forum here because it might cause arguements or hard feelings from members that don’t want to hear it. If you ever want to get a topic deleted by Bergie, just bring up religion, politics or something that will start the flaming… I wish it weren’t that way, but I don’t make the rules.