I’ve been lucky so far. I’ve keep toys at my workplace for the past 13+ years, and not just a few here and there. A LOT! I’ve been fortunate to work at places where a toy collection fits into the culture so it’s really become and extension of my displaying area. Here is a picture of me in my office from last year. As you can see I have quite a bit of stuff on display.
I’ve worked in bull pen areas, I’ve shared work space with a coworker and, for the past 7 years, I’ve had my own office. Currently I have my own office, with a door, that locks, in an out of the way area that you need a key card to get into. It’s not a commonly traveled common area, you have to want to go to where my team sits. When I go home at night I lock my door. I’m also the guy that controls who get what keys on this campus, and security reports into one of my team. I should be the most secure guy at work. At least that’s what I thought….
I have all of my Mattel JLU figures at work on a shelf..or 2 as the line has expanded. Here was my JLU shelf back in 2007
Some time in November 08 a few of my JLU figures went missing. Even though I have a lot of stuff in my office I notice that sort of thing right away. It was weird because the first batch that went missing was all from the villains shelf: Joker, Red Hood (original black version), Bizaro and Lex Luthor… but the FIRST one, the one in the suit. Yeah, the rare one that Mattel will never re-release.
That was frustrating to say the least. But, I thought maybe it was just a coworker having some fun and they would be returned to me. It wasn’t and they weren’t. Then I thought maybe it was a desperate janitor that needed Christmas presents for their kids, but it was such a weird selection. Why not take Superman and Batman? They are so iconic, and right in the front. I noticed a little later that Waverider had also gone "missing."
With the help of Jim Able, my girlfriend and Ebay I was able to replace those over the holidays and all was well.
As time went on the JLU line expanded and so did my shelves. Here’s what they look line now (YES there are some customs in there)
When I got back this week from Toy Fair I noticed the thief had struck again while I was gone, and this time he/she hit me even harder.
This time the list was: Superman, Blue & gray Batman, Green Lantern (bald with goatee), Steel, Robin (Teen Titans), Batgirl and Nightwing for the heroes and Star Sapphire, Reverse Flash, Penguin, Catwoman for the villains. Now clearly whoever is doing this doesn’t know what they are grabbing. By that I mean they don’t know who is valuable in the line. They seem to be just grabbing characters they recognize.
It’s disappointing and it’s maddening. Some of these figures I might have replacements for somewhere in storage, some I won’t. Some I’ll have to rebuy on the secondary market. I just feel violated. I always hoped I’d never find myself here. I’ve changed security procedures for my office. No one gets in while I’m not there. I’ve set up a web cam for after hours.
But if it happens again, I’ll have to pack it all up any bring it all home. In this day and I can can’t afford to keep rebuying my collection.
Has that ever happened to you guys? What have you done to prevent it from happening? Ever catch who was doing it?
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Posted by Julius Marx |
Man! That’s terrible. You told us about the Waverider disappearing but I had no idea about the gravity of the situation. I hope the hidden camera catches the perp.
I’m thinkin take em home pronto. Next thing y’know, the thief might start stealing the even rarer stuff after doing a li’l reseasearch. Not so hard for him y’know?
Awful. I had something like that happen to me with a collection of books while I was in college. I went to an art school and kept a variety of reference books and artist portfolios in my studio space for any project I was working on. It was common for classmates to borrow a book, leaving me a note as to which they had and when they planned on returning it.
Then, one day, all my Frazetta books were gone. No note, no one to claim they had them. That night everything got packed up and moved back to the apartment. Made lugging reference back and fortha real pain but at least I had everything safe. 15 years later the books never showed up and no one ever claimed know ing anything about them.
Sucks. Totally sucks.
Have you tried talking to security to see if anyone new or unusual key swiped their way in? I would think that would be pretty easy to track. Obviously if it is janitorial that is harder to follow and if it is a co-worker that is horrendous.
I hope it all pans out. I hope you get your stuff back. Before you go to ebay let us know if we can help.
Wow this infuriates me and they’re not even my toys! I don’t think I would ever take my collection outside of my home. I hope the camera catches this thief and you can get all your figures back.
Have you narrowed down the suspects based on who has a key to your office? What a sad and frustrating experience. Good luck. Keep us posted.
I am a high school chemistry teacher and I used to keep my 10 inch Justice League Figures on a shelf at school. I also had a bunch of Marvel Superhero Squad figures on my desk. The kids loved them. Too much, I guess. I came in one morning and my 10 inch Flash was gone. I took them all the rest of my figures home that very day. It really did feel like a violation of trust, but, with high school kids, I knew it was a possible event. I guess I had it coming. I’d take your figures home now.
Not. Cool.
I display nothing anywhere other than my house– I dont trust anyone ever, Ive heard and seen even the most mundane items get stolen– and Ive never understood people who bring their stuff to work, I expect them to get stolen in that situation..
If you looked at every place I work people would assume I have the most spartan lifestyle out there.
A sense of dread builds as you read this blog…knowing that you would be robbed again…waiting to read how badly…
The blog is an entertaining read, even though the outcome totally sucks. Looks like a cool office, I’m kinda surprised they didn’t take more.
“I’m kinda surprised they didn’t take more.”
I agree with that. They must have thought they were only taking things you wouldn’t notice. Otherwise why not just take all of them if you’re going to be a jerk in the first place.
Sucks that it happened. But I’ve sent you a PM. I have extras of most if not all of those figures sitting in my extra buckets. Hopefully I can help restore some of your faith.
I would strongly recommend taking them home though. You shouldn’t have to, but if they’ve struck before, they’ll continue to do so I’m afraid.
I hope you can find out who is doing this Dan. I would agree with using security to backtrack who had access and whatnot.
I don’t suppose you could replace those shelves with ones with a glass door, preferably lockable?
I could probably help you out with replacing a few, but have to be out the door to work in a few. lmk.
What a truly revolting, if not completely surprising, development. I am so very sorry that this happened to you given the lengthy time you have had them on display, and I can certainly understand the violation of trust this sort of situation incurs.
On that note, I strongly advise that you take everything home, or at least everything that is rare and very valuable ( and thus considerably more difficult to replace ). And I certainly hope the moron who thought taking what belonged to someone else discovers the joys of well deserved justice real soon.
Good luck and I hope you can replace everything ASAP.
That sucks man. I have a brand new Solomon Grundy in my desk that no longer locks and if I came in and it was gone I would go nuts. Anyway I think I have a yellow flash I can send you.
Let me know if you need him and send me your address.
Wow, that blows. Why do I get the feeling it’s someone taking it for their kid or something, like you said, they don’t know what they are grabbing, I’d at least take the rare ones or customs home. Just in case. I’d set a trap and see if you can catch the perp.
There are so many people that are ignorant to this hobby, they think they’re just grabbing some toy, and you won’t miss them, or you are an adult and they feel vengeful or something and think they are entitled to make you just give them away. They don’t know the hard work, and heart that goes into this. Good luck!!!
Toyman did it. The little guys jumped off the shelf and carted corporate secrets out through the sewer drain.
Or, I know this sounds like an awful thing to say, but have you considered that it may be the cleaning staff? I temped at a place testing printers for a day, and half the time the employees couldn’t even get in their own offices without a security guard.
But the same place hired my roommate’s brother off the street to clean one night, and they left him unsupervised in an R&D lab. If I’m remembering the story correctly, he lifted a tube of Pentium chips and didn’t have to moonlight anymore.
Anyway the point was 1) never trust my old roommate’s brother and 2) even the best security has unforeseen holes in it, e.g. air conditioner repairmen, a corporate VP bringing his child on a tour, or a tiny army of robotic drones cleverly disguised as your toy collection.
I must say, you’re handling this much better than I would — if part of my JLU collection went missing I’d hunt down the bastard that took it and make them regret they thought they pull a fast one over me (can I say “bastards” on this site?).
Of course that severe reaction has a lot to do with the spotty distribution for JLU in Canada over the last 3 years and the fact I have to go into another country to buy new figures (and only have Shade, Huntress (with crossbow), Volcana, Etrigan, and the 10″ Hawkgirl, because I lucked upon them at a Mexican Walmart).
Still, I admire your measured response, and offer my sympathies as a fellow collector.
Have a good day.
John Cage
Man that’s terrible. I really feel for you. Especially losing the original JLU Lex.. man that’s rough. Good luck in finding the perp and replacing any stolen firgues. By the way, very impressive JLU collection!
I have a camera pointed at my office–and if anything ever went missing I would check the tape and fire whoever did it personally. Though I took all my toys home (from the office) years ago because I got paranoid one day when I realized how much I spent/how much I would have to spend to replace them.
I’ve only ever had one thing taken from my work area. The fool that did it then displayed it in his work area, in a sister facility.
All of the stuff I keep at work is marked with invisible black light sensitive ink (bought at the spy store).
I was touring the other facility and happened to notice it on his desk (this was a custom figure given as a gift by my old room mate) I hit the item with my black light and, WHAM! Thievin’ weasel caught red handed. I got my figure back and he lost his job. Never really liked the guy anyway.
But if your area is key card access only and you need a key to enter your actual office… pull the logs, see who was there, and have HR question all of them. If they’d steal from you, who’s to say they aren’t stealing from others or the company. Forget about making or losing friends. Make an example of the perp once you find out who it is.
BTW, I’ve got a DCUC modern Aquaman for you still.
[...] Damn, dirty theives! Action Figure Insider ,February 23, 2009 Why not take Superman and Batman? They are so iconic, and right in the front. I noticed a little later that Waverider had also gone "missing. … [...]
dude,
that sucks. other than sort of general politeness and not wanting to make a big deal out of “toys”, what’s stopping you from actually raising this as an office issue? i mean, clearly it’s someone who has access to your office, which keeps the list of suspects pretty narrow. i mean, if they’re just swiping random ones to give to a kid at home or something, they can always buy your spares instead of doing this shady thing.
seriously, this is still breaking the law, “minor” theft or not.
Sorry to hear that, Dan. I only keep fast food toys in my cubicle. They’re cheap and have no sentimental value to me. A couple of them have disappeared over the years. That’s why I never bring my essential collection to work.
*sigh*
The only toys I ever had stolen were my Super Powers Batman & Robin out of my desk in home room in 1984. Knowing that someone out there had them … was squeezing their legs together … violating their patented power actions …
It just makes me sick.
Halloween 2008, I finally brought my Simpsons Halloween Treehouse of Horror figures too work. I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be, but my staff really seemed to enjoy them. It was great to share them and I put them out in a public area. I was nervous that something would get lost or stolen, but nothing did. They were up for about 10 days without incident. Sounds like you have a thief who is doing this with clear intent. I doubt it is the cleaning crew. Hope you catch them, but they also probably read your blog. Hmm too bad those figures are all coated with a radioactive isotope that only you have the antidote too.
That’s terrible! I would be fuming!!! I have toys in my office and used to have displays in both of my offices (when I had two), but none ever walked away. But, despite offers, this is why I do not set up my Christmas toys in any open office space — I am more afraid someone would play with them & break them, but they could disappear due to non-office people in the office.
I wish you would have kept the status quo and just setup a webcam; I would love for you to catch the thief. It’s probably someone who’s mentality is that you have so many, that’s it’s not a big deal. They are, after all, just toys.
Thanks to everyone for your repsonses. I was really mad and wanted to get it off my chest with people I knew would know what it felt like. And a HUGE thank you to everyone that wrote to me about have spares of certain figures to help me replace the stolen ones. That wasn’t why I wrote the blog, I really wanted to see if it had happened to anyone else and what they did about it.
But THANK YOU! I’m gonna take you guys up on the offers (I think I’ve written back to everyone that PM’ed me now).
I think I will take my JLU home. I just need to remove the temptation from whoever it is. Or… I do know of a lockable display we have in storage… hmmmm….
In grad school, I kept a few figures on my desk, and my ToyBiz Iron Man (circa 1991) vanished one evening. Really, the only ones with access to my lab were the janitors after hours, and I know this one guy would sit at my desk and use my phone. So, I asked him if he had seen it around, and he said he’d “look.” It magically reappeared the next day!
Sorry your thief has no such conscience, Daniel.