Warning - Stolen Alpa Products in Zürich

[TH_Alpa]

To all, this is an official information.

Last night burglars entered our Alpa offices in Zurich by force. Dozens of lenses and a not yet clear number of brand new cameras and many accessories have been stolen. We are of course assured against such losses but all this will cause delivery problems.

We will put all serial numbers of the stolen goods on our website a.s.a.p.

We would like to warn and suggest you to not purchase any Alpa products from non-official dealers. Please get in touch with any official Alpa dealer or with us directly in case of doubts.

The Alpa Team Switzerland
Thierry

[Graham Mitchell]

Sorry to hear that, Thierry. I hope the goods are recovered undamaged.

[TH_Alpa]

And here the link to the announcement on our website:

Housebreaking at ALPA

Thierry

[mtomalty]

What !!
There is criminal activity in Switzerland ?   

Good luck in recovering the items.


Mark
www.marktomalty.com

[TH_Alpa]

Yes, there is, in Zürich, it's an international place, and these people are there where the money is.
However, police here take such burglaries very seriously, more than in other countries. A forensic team from the local police was in situ for more than 2 hours collecting evidence (and there was quite some).

Thanks all for the kind supporting words.

Thierry

What !!
There is criminal activity in Switzerland ?   

Good luck in recovering the items.


Mark
www.marktomalty.com

[TH_Alpa]

After a day of cleaning, tidying up and checking was has been stolen, we can provide a first list of the stolen products.

I would like to publish the list of the most identifiable items here.

They took many lenses, also some 3rd party lenses/cameras and a digital back.
Also, the complete film-back demo stock is gone.

So if you face strange questions about adapters or film backs, please be alerted.

Thanks to all for your support and kind words.

Thierry

[TH_Alpa]

Additional information:

So far no Alpa camera bodies are missing.

- Serial Numbers for lenses can usually be found engraved on the front tubus or occasionally (Apo-Digitar 24, 35, Switar 36, Apo-Digitar 43) on the mount of the back-lens element.

As for Alpa cameras (just for general information):

- SWA/WA ---> on the bottom of the body
- TC, STC ---> inserted in white
- MAX, XY ---> engraved in the bottom of the camera body

Thierry

[meierruedi@hotmail.com]

Sorry to hear that!

I live just around the corner (Eidmattstr.)...any help needed???

[ced]

At last I will be able to afford the purchase of a Rolls Royce!

Sorry to hear about this break in but that is a sign of the times.
I hope the gear will turn up and you can nab the perpetrators.

[TH_Alpa]

That's very kind of you, Ruedi, thanks.

All the mess has been cleaned, but a visit at the offices is always welcome.

Kind regards
Thierry

[rhsu]

... police here take such burglaries very seriously, more than in other countries....

LOL... albeit why many choose to deposit money with Swiss banks...  or perhaps it's the taxation and privacy laws!?  :-)

Sorry to hear about your saga...hope some if not all be recovered in due course!

[eronald]

LOL... albeit why many choose to deposit money with Swiss banks...  or perhaps it's the taxation and privacy laws!?  :-)

I was a visiting scholar at a swiss lab for a year. People would lock their office doors when going to the toilets.
There was also a great social life: I actually managed to have a beer with a swiss guy from the lab that year, but then I realized he was from the lab across the corridor, and he confessed he was actually German.

The Swiss were ideally suited for the banking trade because of their honesty, privacy and discretion - they don't pry into other people's business and they value their family life above all. That meant a healthy stream of income for retail banking until the business guys got greedy exactly like on Wall Street, and the government had to bail them out. Now they are stuck with a sick banking sector, and an economy which is basically tailored for the banks rather than for a commercial integration with Europe.

Edmund

[feppe]

I was a visiting scholar at a swiss lab for a year. People would lock their office doors when going to the toilets.
There was also a great social life: I actually managed to have a beer with a swiss guy from the lab that year, but then I realized he was from the lab across the corridor, and he confessed he was actually German.

The Swiss were ideally suited for the banking trade because of their honesty, privacy and discretion - they don't pry into other people's business and they value their family life above all. That meant a healthy stream of income for retail banking until the business guys got greedy exactly like on Wall Street, and the government had to bail them out. Now they are stuck with a sick banking sector, and an economy which is basically tailored for the banks rather than for a commercial integration with Europe.

The Swiss economy is doing relatively fine - except perhaps currency speculators and central banks buying up so many Swiss francs its value is (arguably) too high. The Swiss recently took drastic action against this.

[TH_Alpa]

Yes it is, although the job proposals have strongly declined by nearly 20% last month. The Swiss National Bank has decided to buy any Euro from 1,20 to the Swiss Franc. This has helped a bit, but is still significantly too little to avoid problems in the export business and in the tourism industry. It may well be that the Swiss National Bank acts again in the coming weeks or months.

Thierry

The Swiss economy is doing relatively fine - except perhaps currency speculators and central banks buying up so many Swiss francs its value is (arguably) too high. The Swiss recently took drastic action against this.

[TH_Alpa]

Ursula, Thomas and André, the owners of Alpa have asked me to give you all their personal thanks for the kind words of support and help here.
They have got dozens of mails and telephone calls to show support.

Things have returned to almost "normality", despite what has been taken away. The goods are well insured, but it is nevertheless a choking experience when this happens in ones home or company.

Again, thanks to all on behalf of the whole Alpa team.

Thierry

[rem]

Sorry to hear, Thierry! Same here in my Studio in Bern. Last week...

[TH_Alpa]

Sorry to hear too, Remo!

All the best
Thierry

Sorry to hear, Thierry! Same here in my Studio in Bern. Last week...

[theguywitha645d]

And I always thought Switzerland was such a safe place...

[francois]

Sorry for the bad news…

I doubt that you'll find the stolen items on local markets however I would still keep an on the anibis.ch website.

As for Switzerland being a safe country... I and my immediate neighbors have faced 14 break-ins during the last three years. We never recovered anything and nobody was arrested! I was lucky as those guys were not interested in cameras or computers!

[rem]

Thanks Thierry and Francois! I had a lot of luck, someone called the police and they arrived very fast!;-)
rem