"Ainsty Stock and Painted Figures - Stolen. Help Needed. " Topic

Hi Folks.
It appears that last night or yesterday evening. Andy Lyons, had his van broken into at his home and a large quantity of stock etc stolen as he prepared for the Phalanx show today. I spoke with Andy today at Phalanx show. He soldiered on and made phalanx with what he could scrabble togather. Amongst the items stolen were his painted display pieces. Which are readily identifiable.

Quoted from another site.

"While preparing for his weekend shows, Andy Lyon of Ainsty's van was robbed:

All my boxes of show stock are gone, all my display models and figures are gone and all my boxed pieces for on the bottom of the racks are gone. Two racks of blistered minis are gone too.

"It has a substantial retail value plus is about a years worth of stock that he's built up.

"If anyone sees boxed Ainsty stuff, Crooked Dice and Rogue Miniatures blisters being sold on the cheap let me (or Andy direct) know.

"I painted up most of the CD display figures for him and Paul V2 the Rogues… so if you see any of those on eBay shout out."

Spread the word. The people who did this shouldn't get away with it."

link

Andy had a reasonable day at Phalanx, I don't think he could really call it a great day. But it was good to see people supporting him and picking up the odd pack they may have held off getting till later.

I believe these are some of the painted figures that were amongst the items taken, I took these at Derby in 2011;
TMP link

If anyone sees these figures or those described above for sale anywhere, please let Andy or the Police know.

Its either a random robbery and the items may have been dumped when they realise what they have stolen as they were stacked and stored in a series of "really useful boxes" or it is a gamer who knew what they were after. At which point they will probably try and sell these on via ebay or shows or clubs etc. So please pass the word and keep and eye open.

John – Deeside Defenders.

Oh man that blows.
Really bad news.

I hope it was all insured though?

that is horrible,very sorry to hear it

Hope they catch who ever it was quickly – sorry to hear this.

Some people just don't have respect for others property who have slaved away to collect or create it through honest hard work. It would not be politically correct for me to say what I'd like to do to the thieves.

I hope the property is recovered and the perp is punished. Even if the product was insured it is going to take him time to rebuild stock. Add in the loss of revenue from the shows and it is going to hurt his business.

I am not sure unfortanetly if the insurance would cover the entirity that was taken, he had a lot by all accounts. I didn't press him as he had obviously had a tough time.

We can only try and be vigilent and hope it turns up on the gaming circuit and then the theives can be caught.

Ainsty, Crooked Dice and Rogue miniatures, are at least not the most common, so large quantities hopefully will attract some questions. We just have to spread the word.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

I hope they catch the thieves and punish them severely.

Freaking thieving scum! I can't trust myself so I will leave it at that!

Scum.

terrible news….

sad thing is even if they catch the crims it will be a simple caution and a small fine…

Make the punishment fit the crime….besides a fine for the amount stolen and damage done to the van…IF it was a 'gamer'….then confiscate ALL of their gaming stuff and donate it to a charity auction and post their photo in every game shop and at every convention for the next 5 years as a 'warning'…(since you can't put their head on a pike, unfortunately)….

Or, if they used a vehicle in the getaway, take away their vehicle, and driving privileges, forever…..

I hope you crush your enemies, have them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.

If he can get a piece in the local press, free papers etc it may assist with recovery if the stuff has been dumped when the thief realised he had no power tools.
It may jog a brain cell in a finder and get it back to the rightful owner.

I will gladly join the posse. When caught, behead the scum and place his head on a pike on the tower as a warning to others. Used to be an acceptable deterrent, and even if not to others, it did deter the one beheaded. Sad day for Andy.

I'd be checking eBay, Bartertown, and the UK equivalent of Craigslist.

Been there. Done that (or rather, had it done to me). Really, truly, deeply *obnoxious* beyond words, especially all the lost time and effort.

Hopefully the perp(s) will be caught and punished, the property recovered in an undamaged state.

Leland R. Erickson

Barstewards!

I hope he gets his stuff back but in the present day version of cops and robbers I'd be suprised. I think vigilant gamers are probably his best hope.

Have posted a notice on my blog too; link (larger photos on my blog)

With a few more photos of some of the painted items that were taken. But please keep in mind, I believe the painted items are only a tiny portion of the 20 odd boxes of stock he had stolen.

Here are the photos;

Of course these boats were not painted, but they are pretty identifiable as being ainsty's. And are very new out, so very unlikley anyone will have them for sale "second hand" yet.

Here are a couple more photos from WMMS Show in 2012.

The boats had been begun to be painted. I didn't take any direct photos of his stand at Triples sadly.

I have added the news to our blog, facebook & twitter feeds.

A lot of these sorts of thefts from vans are oppotunistic, which sadly means that what they ahve stolen is as likely to end up in a trash-bin as to be sold.

Ask the police to check that nights stolen vehicle list and local dumping grounds for them.

/Jed

I've added this terrible news to my Facebook page. I just met Andy at Broadside last week and bought one of his lovely pirate ships.

Henry
Battlegames
facebook.com/battlegames

I do wonder why criminals who operate in this manner continue to be unpunished in the UK. After I was assaulted I was awarded £50.00 GBP in compensation, and I am still going through the process to get my goods returned nearly one year later!

I hope that the person (and I use that term most grudgingly) who has taken these goods suffers. If it was a wargamer I hope that they are drummed out of the hobby permanently!

I hope Andy is able to get is business back on track as soon as possible, and I will make a token purchase from him at the next show!

Very sorry to hear this.
I was at Phalanx yesterday but hadn't read this thread.

I would guess at some passing scumbag rather than a gamer.
They will likely have dumped the stuff as junk.
I'm not sure whether that's better or worse than this being a planned theft by a gamer.

This is just terrible. I really hate thieves! Not overly fond of the legal system where the punishment rarely fits the crime either.

It would be nice if everyone would go have a look at his wares and make a small order to show your support and then be patient while he does his best to fill the orders.

I was hit by thieves last year but was fortunate they did not know the value of minis. I did not lose a single figure, terrain piece or paint bottle. And I have a HUGE lead pile! Luckily they were more interested in power tools for the yard.

While I have no idea who Andy Lyons is I'm very sorry to hear about this happening to him.

I'm a little confused by a few of the posts referring to the punishment fitting the crime. If the criminal is caught wouldn't they be charged with grand larceny?

I've posted this on my FB and Misfit Studios' FB page. I'll drop off a post at RPG.net ASAP as well.

"If the criminal is caught wouldn't they be charged with grand larceny"?

In theory yes, but if as mentioned above on the assault example, UK justice is anything like USA justice, the thief may be given a moderate to stern talking to, and probation, and/or time served in the local lockup (assuming there was any).

Sadly, the broken justice system lets these people out to re-offend again, repeatedly, and since they are rarely caught, and really punished, the cycle continues. Criminals know all of this, and get away with probably 90%+ of their crimes.

A shame.

Personally, I wish a lot of the judges and lawyers could be brought up on charges as well, for aiding an abetting the crimes they commit.

If they did that, you can bet the punishment would be considerably more effective, and appropriate for their crimes.

And now there are budget concerns for criminals as well. Recently in a neighboring state (Oregan) they released around 20+ inmates who were mostly waiting on trials for lesser crimes (i'm too lazy too go look up all the details just now) as there budget ran out. So they simply released them.

Let's see here… probably 20,000gbp of product, plus another ~10,000gbp of display materials (once you include the cost to get it painted to commercial-sales standards).

I'd be bothering the investigators and prosecutors *daily* until they caught and convicted the [vocabulary failure].

Sorry to hear that Andy. Sadly I share the general disillusionment with the UK legal system, so doubt you will see the kit again. The best advice has already been given – watch local skips and second-hand shops where the druggies dump their hauls for a fraction of the value so they can get their next hit.

Ken

Thanks everyone for the suporting messages, offers of help and spreading the word elsewhere. It is a major setback but Im not a quitter and it wont hold me back for long.

Insurance is looking doubtful with it being loaded up in a hire van overnight but I will persue that of course.

Thanks again

Andy

Really saddened to hear about this. Hope you can get things sorted.

Andy
Sorry to hear about this. I wondered where your display models were.
Well doen on attending Valhalla at the weekend.

Sorry to hear that.
I've been robbed twice in my life (broke into my home), and both times I felt violated.

Sad to see this – such a good bloke and all.

If nothing else, this convinced me to help out by pushing through an order I've been putting off.

Sad to say most of this has probably ended up in the local dumpster bin because it wasn't a high value item that could be sold for drug money…

Looks like I need to make an order to show my support for them, and to help out.

Best wishes on it, and I hope they catch the craps…

Really sorry to hear about this.

Hope the stuff turns up.

I will help you out, and buy some of those nice ships you have soon.
Sorry to hear about your losses.

Tom

@Lion in the Stars – The sad thing is that if you went into a bank and stole 30k you'd make national news and when caught you'd do time. Steal 30k's worth of stock it becomes a case of "Oh just contact your insurers".

hope w emanage dto help at the show andy

My shipment just arrived. I haven't had a chance to go over it all yet, but what I've seen is great. No flare or other artefacts in the castings, so far as I've spotted so far. I'm looking forward to painting them up and adding them to my zombie landscape. Thanks, Aintsy Castings! I've added a link to your storefront from my upcoming wargame's page as an ideal scenery provider.

Only just seen this-very sad.
However,I suspect theft of £30,000.00 GBP worth of anything, whether it be from a van or a bank, takes you way beyond the "smack on wrist" stage, despite the cynical comments above.
It's the catching people that's the difficult bit, as with many thefts and burglaries.I subscribe to the random theory-not because wargamers are too nice, but because unless the wargamer is a hobby recluse, doesn't go to a club, or doesn't post pictures on a forum, then it would leak out eventually.

forrester you are probably right, at least I hope you are.

It has been a while and I personally haven't heard of any of the stuff re-appearing.

Hope Andy was in fact able to sort somet some of claim out with the insurance company.