I was reading my current email from HalfWheel this morning regarding the above captioned information:

http://halfwheel.com/ipcpr-2014-day-two-recap/65675

and was wondering why individuals have so much faith in their own community, and not to suspect that there may just be a couple of "rotten" apples in the bunch?

As always, if there is opportunity, motive, and means, a crime may be just around the corner. In essence, you take away the opportunity and possibly, those Undercrown Flying Pigs do not grow wings and fly away.

We do place faith in our cigar and pipe community with trust. Just go to any herf and see all of the unattended travel humidors and accessories laying around on the table(s). Yet we feel secure in knowing that our fellow BOTL/SOTL will not violate those humidors with theft. Its a common respect that we have for one anothers personal property, and that's cool:-)

The above concern at the IPCPR did not have to occur if only the vendor and/or promoters would have hired a top notch security firm, made sure that their own product was locked away during and after the show, and also would have had their own security on premise watching the product like a red tailed hawk.

Having security is simply a deterent and way of removing "opportunity."
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Most security is about keeping honest people honest.

Great insights, Mark. :-)
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That is a shame. In general the cigar community is full of honest and generous people. There are a few bad people but they don't stick around or last. If one of us was to get ripped off I know the community would step up and right that wrong even though there is no obligation. Just comes back to the generosity of people in our hobby.
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this type of thing is a problem at all trade shows and vendors do need to take security of their trade show materials seriously. It's hard with cigars because they are there to be given out as samples to the trade show attendees.

I worked for a Marketing/PR Company and attended the Consumer Electronics Show for many years. Theft was always a concern there, because companies would have prototype electronics and for some of the smaller stuff like cell phones and tablets - it's easy for people to walk off with them. That's why they are usually attached to the display with a cable or something. Theft still did occur and was always a problem.
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Correctamundo!!!:-)


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Sad what types of people are hiding in plain sight.
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Indeed.
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Intertabac 2 years ago, Oliva had showcase boxes, just a top row of cigars, glued to the box. After the show, all those cigars were missing anyway. It's sad.
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I was at a big tradeshow in Chicago and someone came up to one of the booths and managed to walk off with a brand new ipad!
BOLD!
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That kind of thievery is terrible. If I were a manufacturer I would make up a special for display only batch that was just there to show off the wrapper and the box- filler would be paper. Go ahead and steal that smoke.

Aside- halfwheel really does do a good job reporting on things- I should read that more often
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Display security is always a concern. May times if there are few people or a single person work an area thieves will work in pairs. One to divert, one to walk off with the product. If you go big, you need the staff to work the area on hand and there are always people looking to get free stuff. Always.
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This is what we do. All of our boxes on display are real boxes, and the top row of cigars are real, but they are glued to a piece of cedar and placed in the box with an empty space below it. What you get is a box that looks full, but the cigars are glued and have been that way for years. Our display cases where new product is shown are all locked, and only two keys exist for the entire booth. Sample cigars are in rooms with lockers where each rep has their own samples. Those too are locked.

A "top notch security firm" is going a bit far. These shows have thousands and thousands of people walking in and out of hundreds, if not thousands of manufacturers booths. The best way to deter theft is to stop it from happening from the get go with locking everything up. I've worked trade shows with distributors that if it wasn't bolted to the ground, people were trying to lift it. It got to the point where these smaller distributor shows have on the clock police officers there to arrest people for stealing. Last year my booth was next to a major Vapor manufacturer. The guy asked if I could watch his booth while he ran to the bathroom. In the time he was at the bathroom, no less than 4-5 people tried to steal something from his table. One guy even tried for a full plastic display full of $100 vape pens and liquids. Unreal.....

There are only a handful of bad apples, but they do exist, anywhere you go. You just have to do what you can within your means to make sure it doesn't happen to you.
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Two years ago even those cigars got stolen at Intertabac.
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As I get ready to open my cigar lounge. I think about what is the right approach to make sure I'm offering assistance in the humidor and preventing theft. With out seeming to be hovering over someone in a way they find insulting.
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