Richie Hawtin’s Gear Stolen In France

Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) reports that his gear got ripped off from Friday in France:

To all my French fans, friends and supporters. I need your help!

On Friday night someone broke into my hotel room at Hotel Costes in Paris and stole my iPod and 2 x Plastikman Live iPads (serial #GB01723UZ38 and #GB0129CAZ3A) and my Plastikman Live show Apple Macbook Pro 17″ laptop (serial #C02CK0GXDC7C).

I am asking everyone to keep their ears and eyes open for any information about these very important and personal items. I’m offering a 2500 € reward for any information that leads to the return of the equipment.

Please email me at [email protected]. If found/returned I will NOT prosecute any one involved as I would just like to have my equipment returned.

Thank you, Rich.

What do you think? Is corporal punishment too harsh for people that rip off musicians?

24 thoughts on “Richie Hawtin’s Gear Stolen In France

  1. My thoughts EXACTLY….had he had REAL gear like hardware synths
    and what not, he probably wouldn't have had this issue. I upped you which
    took one of your thumbs downs away.

  2. I think he should have known better, even if you trust things in the hotel.. I mean; first of all always get a lockable safety box. Most hotels offer this feature; it'll cost you some but this costs way more.

    Second: protection. You have motion sensor alarms (google "targus defcon 1", I love this critter for my gear) which you can tie around several cases and such. Using a robust steel cable mind you (cased in plastic). Cut the cable and the alarm goes off, try to move the stuff… the alarm goes off.

    It doesn't matter if you think the hotel staff is friendly and if the hotel as a whole is trustworthy. This isn't about them, its about you and your gear. And if you worry about sending out a signal that you don't trust them; don't. Decent hotels will even expect as much in these times, and won't feel "offended" or so.

    After all; its about your stuff, not theirs.

    I do hope for the guy he gets his stuff back, although I don't give him much hope. Paris also saw its rate of criminal activities rise steadily 🙁

  3. i remember when BT also got his gear stolen… I can't imagine what I'd do if I had my instruments taken from me…. probably ends with me throwing a few weighted hefty bags off my boat… 🙂

    I think Hawtin needs to hire dog the bounty hunter and film the whole thing… it could be a white trash meets fist pumping juiceheads reality show… hilarity would ensue…

  4. Interesting reactions all round. Some people have to resort to stealing, whether we like it or not, they are definetely not in the same league as killers, childern who harrass their peers, parents who abuse children, rapists, and the whole lot. That said: Who ever breaks (did they break in? perhaps it was a hotel employee of sorts who had access to the room) into a more pricy hotel room to steal computer equipment is probably not the kind of thief who needs to steal for food. I do not understand why Mr Hawtin does not want to prosecute the thief. After all it's not as if someone had stolen things you cannot easily replace by walking into a store in any slightly bigger town or city. Perhaps he made the same mistake as many people before: No (or at least no off site) backup. These days it would be incredibly easy to rent some online storage space and use that for backup purposes or why not burn a DVD every once in a while. Nobody (except people who want to rip of Richie Hawtin in particular and not just someone with a tad too much computing equipment lying around) would steal those. Or does he have something to hide that was on his laptop?

    On the other hand if someone stole my gear that is not in production any longer and harder to come by I would maybe just offer to buy the stuff back (or not, considering that this sort of behaviour would encourage other thieves and thus endanger the equipment of other musicians, similar to stealing pictures from an art gallery and buying them back).

  5. People who steal instruments from musicians should be dipped in boiling fat and fed to wild dogs.

    In this case it appears that no musical instruments we stolen. Just some computers. So the police should be able to handle that.

  6. The big problem, I see, is the unlaunched app for iPad that he's been using to control Ableton Live. The app is being developed with his help, and is supposed to be lauched comercialy soon, for sure there are product secrets on those robbed devices.

  7. Generally, most hotel safes aren't big enough to store stuff like the iPads and the laptop, but it depends on the hotel. Going with personal and portable security is a much better option.

  8. then of this i learn:

    1.- to do music use one for live purpose and another for spare
    2.- if the first is stolen by some french burglars… back up your live sets on other computer
    3.- and finally… back up your stuff on a portable hard drive.

  9. then of this i learn:

    1.- you need 2 computers: the first is for live performance and another for spare.

    2.- if the first is stolen by some burglars… back up your live sets on the second computer, this one have to be a clone of the first one, or manage all your secrets in a super mobile device like an external hard disk.

    3.- and finally… always back up your stuff on a portable hard disk, dvds, flashdrives, ftp services or whatever you can.

  10. then of this i learn:

    1.- you need 2 computers: the first is for live performance and another for spare.

    2.- if the first is stolen by some burglars… back up your live sets on the second computer, this one have to be a clone of the first one.

    3.- and finally… always back up your stuff on a portable hard disk, dvds, flashdrives, ftp services.

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