stolen dunny

While the harassment problems seems to have been put under control, by and large, there are a rather alarming number of reports of theft from the show, including this one, about a hand painted “Dunny” statue worth $2000 being stolen from a booth. The culprit was caught on tape taking the items at 7:25 after the show closed and fled on foot.

Nick Curtis, an associate editor at the magazine, said the 20-inch, high-priced action figure had been hand-painted by artist Jon-Paul Kaiser during the event.

“What had been done is that an artist did a live painting of it during Comic Con, making it essentially a one-of-a-kind piece of art on a 3-D canvas,” he said.

The bunny-like figurines are typically 3-inches tall, mass-produced and retail for $15, Curtis said.

The thief also stole a Popaganda “TDY” figure worth $80 and a Goodley Toy action figure worth $100, police said.

I also saw tweets indicating that writer Amy Chu’s laptop was stolen, and there’s a report of an artist having some pages stolen as well.

Thievery doesn’t invite the same kind of “they were asking for it” response as other kinds of claims, but unfortunately, these incidents are a reminder that leaving valuable things lying around is not a good idea at a crowded con. It’s also a sad comment on an otherwise peaceful crowd.

I know of one creator who had his laptop stolen right off his table at a foreign show. (I also know of several people who had wallets stolen at comic book after partys over the years—enough so that I’d rather stand around with 20lbs of equipment on my shoulder than leave them unattended.) While these kind of thefts are not uncommon everywhere, there do seem to have been several at this year’s NYCC.

Anyway, keep an eye on valuables!

4 COMMENTS

  1. A clerk at my local comic shop told me that they decided to not bring action figures and statues to their booth this year because of, among other reasons, worries about theft

  2. I was at a booth when i saw a young girl, maybe 14, carrying an empty bag and she shoved a hardcover into it and she was caught by me and the guy at the booth. She said she was going to pay for it later…lol…and all they really did is ask her to leave. Look, it is New York after all…and whenever you have that many people, things will go missing. What all cons have to keep in mind is that when the con is closed, they have to get everyone out asap that shouldnt be there.

  3. That Munny is pretty big at 20 inches. If it was a regular 3inch figure, I’d find it pretty dumb at a 2k price.

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