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Stolen equipment
urchin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi guys, in need of some advice here.
I'm in charge of a university organization at a small campus that throws on-campus LAN parties twice a semester. We had our first one of the school year last night and had record breaking attendance (around 50 people!). At these LANs we always collect donations for Child's Play. Last year we collected enough to gain silver sponsor status (we're the "lanbrew.com mod team" on the Child's Play site) and are well on our way to that honor again this year-the LAN was very successful and many people told me they had a great time.
Anyway, onto the purpose of this post. A friend of mine let us use his Wii equipment at the LAN for the console gaming section. He was afraid something might get stolen so he carried the extra equipment in his backpack when people weren't using it. To make a long story short, he set down his backpack near an exit door (I'll attribute that decision to his lack of sleep and enthusiasm to see the LAN raise a lot of money) to go around to collect donations. Someone seems to have walked off with it (we think it was some high-schoolers that were on campus for the big high-school rivalry football match at our stadium). I was at a late night study group during this time period (and there apparently was some miscommunication about who was in charge of watching traffic flow/equipment while I was gone). In his backpack he had 3 wiimotes (Wario Ware was running at the time), 2 nunchucks and a bunch of games - close to $400 worth of equipment. I feel terrible and very guilty about this (though my friend is being very nice about it) and right now don't think I'll ever organize an event like this again (for a couple other minor reasons as well). </self-pity>
So, the purpose of this post is to try and find a way to replace this equipment. So far I've thought of two possible paths of action, please tell me if you think either has any merit or if you have another idea:
1) E-mail Nintendo, tell them about the organization, what it does, what is has achieved and hope that they take pity on my friend getting his stuff stolen while collecting donations at a charity fundraiser and replace some of it/do something for him. Sometimes I see stories about Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo doing things similar to this so I'm cautiously optimistic.
2) Do a write up about our organization and the other charity stuff we do with pictures (we built a X-box at a Habitat for Humanity Shack-a-thon fundraiser last semester), have a paypal account where people can donate a dollar or two and post the link on a social networking site like digg and hope for the best.
Thanks in advance!
I'm in charge of a university organization at a small campus that throws on-campus LAN parties twice a semester. We had our first one of the school year last night and had record breaking attendance (around 50 people!). At these LANs we always collect donations for Child's Play. Last year we collected enough to gain silver sponsor status (we're the "lanbrew.com mod team" on the Child's Play site) and are well on our way to that honor again this year-the LAN was very successful and many people told me they had a great time.
Anyway, onto the purpose of this post. A friend of mine let us use his Wii equipment at the LAN for the console gaming section. He was afraid something might get stolen so he carried the extra equipment in his backpack when people weren't using it. To make a long story short, he set down his backpack near an exit door (I'll attribute that decision to his lack of sleep and enthusiasm to see the LAN raise a lot of money) to go around to collect donations. Someone seems to have walked off with it (we think it was some high-schoolers that were on campus for the big high-school rivalry football match at our stadium). I was at a late night study group during this time period (and there apparently was some miscommunication about who was in charge of watching traffic flow/equipment while I was gone). In his backpack he had 3 wiimotes (Wario Ware was running at the time), 2 nunchucks and a bunch of games - close to $400 worth of equipment. I feel terrible and very guilty about this (though my friend is being very nice about it) and right now don't think I'll ever organize an event like this again (for a couple other minor reasons as well). </self-pity>
So, the purpose of this post is to try and find a way to replace this equipment. So far I've thought of two possible paths of action, please tell me if you think either has any merit or if you have another idea:
1) E-mail Nintendo, tell them about the organization, what it does, what is has achieved and hope that they take pity on my friend getting his stuff stolen while collecting donations at a charity fundraiser and replace some of it/do something for him. Sometimes I see stories about Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo doing things similar to this so I'm cautiously optimistic.
2) Do a write up about our organization and the other charity stuff we do with pictures (we built a X-box at a Habitat for Humanity Shack-a-thon fundraiser last semester), have a paypal account where people can donate a dollar or two and post the link on a social networking site like digg and hope for the best.
Thanks in advance!
urchin on
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Posts
Really, $400 is nothing. It will take you weeks in donations to get that amount, if ever, where as just working at a job for 2 or 3 days can probably recover that amount of money. I accidentally dropped my $600 dollar iPhone five stories down when I was using it on a balcony and destroyed it. I shrugged, and the next weekend I went to buy a new one. And then Apple decide to do a price drop.
*shrug*
You could file a report with the police or something for symbolism, but really unless you lost $1000+ dollars I wouldn't worry about it. Money is lost every day. Just be glad memory wasn't stolen (i.e. an entire Wii), as that can never be recovered.
Yeah, we filed a report with the campus police. My friend is pretty well off and that's basically what he has been saying, but I still feel really guilty about it and need to at least try something before I just let it go. Where would you suggest I ask donations from? I have an e-mail list of most of the people that were at the LAN, but that isn't near enough people.
I'm not going to do that. I considered having the donation bin at the next event/additional donation bin for recompensating him, but that's a whiles away and I don't want to take any potential money from the fundraising if it can be helped.
Submit an article about the event and your group. Maybe whoever took it will feel bad they stole from a gaming group, and not just some poor shmuck who left his backback.
Yeah, unlikely, but so was a wi-fi iPod, and now look.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
The only problem with that is that it can raise your insurance premiums depending on who you're with. Also they'll only allow so many claims before they can just drop you because you're costing them too much. It would suck if they've claimed something after the hurricanes, and they're on the line, and they loose insurance for a wii right before the last storm of the season hits (presuming they live near a coast).
I'm with everyone else, just let your friend buy new stuff. Be honorable and offer to split the costs, talk it over with the rest of the lan group and see if you can take some cash from the main draw to pay for stuff.
Yeah, that's what I thought about the insurance option as well. That's a good idea about telling nearby gamestores, I'll get on that right now. And if the other ideas fall through I'l just split he cost with him and maybe have an extra donation box at the next event.
Assuming it gets sold.
$400 really isn't that much, though. My renter's insurance has a $500 deductible.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH