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.
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.
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
This article was last modified on January 8, 2023
This article was first published on August 7, 2013
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