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This article is from August 7, 2013, and is no longer current.

Lenstag: The Online Registry That May Help You Recover Stolen Camera Gear

You can spend quite a bit of time and money building a collection of photography equipment that you love and depend on. But it only takes a few moments for a thief to make off with your prized gear and then sell it online or in a pawn shop, leaving you with little hope of ever seeing your stuff again.

This problem lead Google engineer Trevor Sehrer to create lenstag.com, a new website where you can enter the information about what photo gear you own to alert police and others in the event that something is stolen and hopefully help you recover the items.

Lenstag.com

You use Lenstag by entering the brand, model, and serial numbers of your equipment, along with a clear photo of the serial numbers to prove you actually have possession of the items. Once the photos and info are reviewed and confirmed, the gear is considered verified. Then if something ever goes missing, you can visit the site and report it as stolen. When you do this, your stuff will appear in a database of stolen camera gear that the police or a potential buyer can check.

Lenstag.com

 

The site will also create a page for your stolen gear that is indexed by Google, so anyone can simply search on the serial number to see that it has been reported as stolen to Lenstag.com

 

Lenstag.com

 

 

Editor in Chief of CreativePro. Instructor at LinkedIn Learning with courses on InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP, Inkscape, and Affinity Publisher.
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