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Camera and Equipment Insurance
-- Jay J. Pulli, July 10, 2000
Jay,
I'm not sure if I totally agree with your definitions of "theft" and "mysterious
disappearance".
I ran an insurance agency for 8 years here in New Jersey and what the insurance
companies REQUIRE is a police report. If my camera is with me at work (as it always
is), and it disappears from my bag, I have to contact the police to report a theft. I receive
a report from the police, detailing the theft, which I then turn over to my insurance
carrier who then pays me according to the terms of my policy. While the camera may
have "mysteriously disappeared", it did not jump out of my bag and walk away on its
own. Someone, a person, had to remove it without my knowledge. That's theft.
"Mysterious disappearance", while it can apply to missing property, almost always
applies to life insurance policies where the insured has "disappeared", usually without a
trace. Under those circumstances, the insurance company can withhold payment until
they are reasonably satisfied that the insured had passed away, and is not just simply
hiding in a cave on an island somewhere out in the Pacific. One famous example of a
"mysterious disappearance" was Amelia Earhart, the pilot. Although the Navy searched
extensively, neither Ms. Earhart nor her plane were ever found.
According to Black's Law Dictionary, "Mysterious Disappearance" can also be the loss
of property under unknown or puzzling circumstances which are difficult to explain or
understand. Leaving your camera on a bench and then finding it has disappeared is not
exactly mysterious, puzzling, difficult to explain or understand. Either the camera fell off
the bench in which case it should be on the ground near the bench, or someone removed
the camera from the bench and this is then clearly theft. Now whether the insurance
company decides to pay you for the missing property is another matter but again, if you
produce a police report, the odds are clearly in your favor that the company will pay you,
assuming of course, you have not filed 200 previous claims for theft of equipment. This
is also a good reason to remember to READ your insurance policy carefully and
thoroughly and consult with an attorney on any segment(s) of the policy that are not clear
to you.
A better example of "mysterious disappearance" as it relates to property, is if you come
home to your apartment and find your stereo, computer and television set are gone and
yet there are no signs of forced entry into the apartment. You will have a very tough time
proving to the insurance company that those items were stolen from your apartment
unless the police can trace the items back to someone who may have had access to your
apartment such as a superintendent or landlord. Insurance companies want to see proof in
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