How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft? 758
DragonTHC writes "I'm thinking about hosting a lan party open to the public. I'm aiming for approximately 60 people to attend. I can handle all the logistics of operation. The only thing I can't wrap my head around is: how do I prevent theft at the lan party? Do I hire security guards? Do I need security cameras? I don't know the people who will attend, and I don't know if they're trustworthy enough to not steal other people's equipment. What do I do?"
Insurance? (Score:5, Informative)
Suppose somebody gets hurt? Are you ready to handle a big personal liability lawsuit?
I would NOT do what you are describing.
Re:Related, have everyone sign a release.. (Score:5, Informative)
Also have all equip signed in/out, that's all - nothing leaves without a cross-check to make sure it was checked in by the same guy. If you make it look like you are expecting theft, people will steal. If you put everyone on notice that you have an honor system and this signin is just to prevent mixups for identical-looking equipment, you'll have happier party-goers.
The disclaimer should be nothing too onerous, but with plenty of disclaimers - "YOU agree that YOU are responsible for everything that happens to YOUR equipment while it's here, including theft, spillage, power surges, lightning strikes, or other acts of man or God."
Re:Been there... (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, forgot one other biggie!
We had to hire a generator rental company to provide power. We couldn't find any place that enough juice to one room to run 50 PCs. (at least, not without seriously violating code)
Here's some pointers :-) (Score:5, Informative)
Having organized parties as large as 2000 people, there is one thing that will pretty much be true with a party of every size : You cannot possibly guarantee that there won't be any theft at all and maintain a decent party atmosphere (let alone keep inside the budget).
You should, under no circumstances, assume liability over your guests' equipment. They need to know they are responsible for their own stuff, and that you will not be held accountable if somebody steals it. If they cannot watch their equipment for the duration of the party, then that is not your fault.
You can, of course, offer a "lockbox"-service -- i.e. offer to keep their hardware secured in a cage or some such which is guarded 24/7; This is pretty much the same model as wardrobe at theaters. You take their bags/hardware, issue them a ticket, and do not release the bags/hardware without that ticket. Make sure you inform yourself on what liability you are taking on (if any), possibly restrict it to a maximum value, and consider insuring yourself against theft thereof. If you do this, make absolutely sure that the station is manned 24/7 (we usually do this near the reception area). Think about policies and procedures for when somebody loses their ticket (they will.)
If you provide the network/power infrastructure (and you usually do), think a bit about how to secure it. If you rent your equipment, inquire about theft insurance. It may well be worth it, depending on what your equipment costs. The most probable time switches, routers, etc. get stolen is when everybody is packing up (at the end of the party) -- it's chaos at that point. Keep an eye on your stuff. We usually devise a monitoring system; if your switches are managed, you can keep pinging them once a second from a central station. If they don't reply two or more times, an alarm goes off (loud, obnoxious, flashy alarm, with the equipment name, number and mapped location on the screen, in red). Make sure you have people in place who can follow up on that stuff, fast. If there is only one exit, it may be easier to check for your "bigger" stuff; smaller stuff is easy to hide in bags, and searching bags is not only really, really timeconsuming, but also kills party atmosphere, potentially lands you in legal hot waters, etc.
Do not assume that people will leave via the designated exit/entrance area. You will most likely HAVE to have a secondary fire exit (or more, depending on the size of the venue). These cannot be blocked or barred. When people leave at the end, they may also use these. Equipment near there is rather high risk. Have people there.
Security "guards" (i.e. guys hired for that specific purpose) are nice for FEELING secure, but they don't actually do much. LAN-party goers don't usually end up in fistfights, and you don't want guards roughing up your guests. It doesn't, of course, hurt when some of your organizing team (you do have a team, right ?) look impressive in person :>
Security cameras don't usually have high resolutions and are easily avoided. You can make pretty nifty time-compressions of them though for the after-party videos.
If you want, you can devise a ticketing/sticker system for high-value items of your guests ... I.e. when they check in, give them 3-4 stickers for their equipment and a token to be kept secure (an armband, a badge, that sort of stuff). They affix their stickers to their equipment, and on checkout, you check the stickers against the badge. If you go this road, do keep an eye on speed. Wireless handheld barcode scanners can help. If this process is too slow, your team and your guests will grow frustrated at checkout and eventually not bother with it anymore.
You mention that you do not know the people who are coming. Do you also not know who is coming ? If not, make it a requirement to sign up on your website. Throw in some nifty stuff for that (seat selection, etc.), and people will do it. That way at least you'll have some personal information to identify people with.
Re:Insurance? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the homeowner's policy will only cover liability on the property and I doubt they will host a 60 person LAN party in their house.
What they would want is a PLUP - A personal liability umbrella policy. I got one for $1 million that costs under $80 a year. Plus it gave me a deduction on my car insurance.
LAN Party Theft (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking as someone whose worked with folks who host a 120+ person LAN party every 6 weeks, there are really only 2 ways to prevent it:
1.) Only invite folks whom you know and trust.
2.) Don't have a LAN party.
But, beyond that, try to organize your folks who are coming into groups who know each other, or can at least work cooperatively outside what's going on in the LAN. That is, if you have groups of folks who know one another, then while some are napping or off getting refreshments, someone they knowand trust is there to guard their loot. That's about the most straightforward way, because you won't know everyone, but hopefully everyone there will know a few other folks. And if they don't, maybe you can create some new groups of friends.
More than that, you DO need to have some sort of hold harmless paperwork that everyone agrees and signs, so you're not left with the liability issue. I mean, let's say no one steals anything, no one hurts themselves, what if someone innocently brings in a virus or malware or keylogger that gets spread through the LAN. Sometimes, CYA is the only way to do things.
Just my $0.02. Good luck, either way!
Re:Insurance? (Score:2, Informative)
>If you're really concerned about it, most homeowners policies have a personal liability coverage in them.
Wrong.
I run a business out of my house which entails some 30-40 people passing through each week. My homeowners insurance explicitly excludes home-run business liability. The insurance to cover those 30-40 people runs about $5,000 a year. I had to do quite a bit of looking before I was able to find a policy to cover those folks - most insurance companies passed. The high cost and lack of plentiful insurers says to me either people are scamming the insurance companies for this kind of risk or the risk is 5 times that of your house burning down.
Kids and Fencing (Score:2, Informative)
When I take my daughter to the local "run and pipes, play games, and eat pizza" restaurant, they stamp our hands to match. I also fence, and before each tournament, we get a stamp applied to our gear after it gets certified. You could do a combination of these with gear and users. Get some cool logo stamp with a number sequencer. Give each attendee a card and stamp the card, and then stamp a sticker on the major components. When you leave, they have to match up the card to the gear. PITA. Some might complain of getting stickers on their gear. Some might think its pretty cool.
Seating Arrangement is the key (Score:3, Informative)
Arrange seating so that small groups are seated together... this way they can watch each others' rigs. They can get to know one another and identify strangers.
Have all Computers face inward, with only a single accessible entrance for each group from behind.
Less points of entry, means less points to watch.
Re:Insurance? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Insurance? (Score:3, Informative)
Exactly, when I used to host lan parties we had groups ranging from 20 people to 150 people. Theft was never a huge issue. Most people come with a group of 2-3 friends (larger if they're in clans) and simply "watch each others stuff". For larger parties, you might want to deal with the event staff at a hotel or something, they know a lot about taking care of that stuff.
The big deal is power, for the larger parties we had to find a hotel or other event room with 3 phase power distribution (200+ amps) to handle all the machines.
Re:video capture, check id's (Score:3, Informative)
Mod parent up.
This is the best, cheapest solution. Photocopying the IDs would also be a good idea. The fear of video surveillance will deter most thieves.
However, you might not to run these on a very regular basis, especially if they're in a relatively remote location. There is a non-trivial chance that a bunch of guys with guns could show up and take everything (including your surveillance equipment). If, based on your location, you think the cops would show up in 5 minutes with a 911 call you're okay.
IOW, don't run your LAN party in a rough neighborhood.
Re:Insurance? (Score:5, Informative)
1. Get equipment
2. Invite lots of friends
3. Charge them money
?? Profit!
sort of venture, particularly if it is going to happen more than once, you might need a small business policy. Call your insurance agent or broker.
Disclaimer: IAAIA (am an insurance agent) but PLEASE don't call me!
Defensive Thinking (Score:5, Informative)
If this will be your first LAN party, go smaller. Get a feel for the check-in dynamics and such. Then grow.
If you've got a few smaller ones under your belt, and you want to go big, read on.
First, indemnify, indemnify, indemnify. Require all attendees to sign a waiver which says they will not hold you accountable for any equipment harm or theft or any personal harm or theft. Ensure that each person knows that they are responsible for their own equipment and actions, and can leave at any time.
Second, if you're asking for money, clarify the refund procedure. I suggest establishing a no-refund policy, then bending that policy on a case-by-case basis.
Third, hold the LAN in a secure, very public location. I recommend a church or community center for a 60-man LAN, then a firehall once you break 100.
Fourth, establish clearly defined, binding rules which outline attendees' expected behavior. I recommend taking a look at the rules contained in the Pittco information sheet [pittco.org], published by the Pittsburgh LAN Coalition (disclaimer: I wrote it and am an organizer of its Iron Storm [pittco.org] events).
Fifth, tell every attendee that security is their responsibility when they sign up and when they arrive. Advise them to bring as little equipment as they can. They should consider locks (barrels, the more numbers the better) for their case and they should put their name on everything. They should also backup their data before coming to the LAN.
Sixth, if someone comes to you and says they think that something has been stolen, ask them to ask the people around them if they've seen it. Some people immediately think that something has been stolen when perhaps it is underneath something or fell onto the floor. If a lot of people have left the party and/or it's near the end of the party, tell the person to post a lost and found request on your forums (you do have forums, right?) and to remind you so that you can send something in a mass email (you have all of the addresses of your attendees, right?).
Seventh, remember that most people who come to LANs aren't going to want to steal anything because they're going to be busy guarding their own equipment. Do not allow spectators. If you must, require that they be escorted, or that they check-in with you every so often. Also, use wristbands to keep track of who checked-in. If someone doesn't have a wristband or a staff T-shirt (consider that after an event or two), you have every right to tell them to leave. Call the cops if you have to. Just do not use force—you are not certified or licensed to do such things in public places and you will open yourself to legal trouble.
Eighth, post this question at forums for MillionManLAN, EverLAN, Lake Effect LAN, Pittco, Noreaster, and some of the other larger, non-corporate-sponsored LANs. They'll give you good advice, and you'll even draw some people to your event!
Re:Insurance? (Score:2, Informative)
He stated he was stopped. Without knowing the car he was driving and the type of SUV, I can only guess....but reasonable distance between stopped vehicles is less than the distance a heavy SUV at speed can push first vehicle into the one in front.
Having been in this situation many years ago and the police were standing right there when it happened (because they had stopped traffic on the I5 in LA), the person who hit me was cited...and while the person in the very front of the 6 car chain reaction (my car was totaled as was the one that hit me), she was trying to sue any one for money...her car had a scratch on the bumper, the rest had various levels of damage from me (total) to crease in the rear bumper (second from front), so she was told to go pound sand by my insurance company.
Bottomline...ALWAYS call the police when in an accident if you are not at fault. If you are at fault, you do not want the police to muddy your story later with facts.
Re:Insurance? (Score:4, Informative)
If you have not found any, you are not looking in the right places.
KenTacoHut is now. (Score:3, Informative)
In the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell.
True, but in the future, you can also get anything at a Taco Bell. The Taco Bell company [wikipedia.org] already owns Pizza Hut, KFC, A&W, and Long John Silver's, and some restaurants already sell multiple Yum! brands [wikipedia.org].
Re:Insurance? (Score:3, Informative)
I think it took a good amount of time to exhaust the 3-digit UIDs, more than most people probably think. Same with 4-digit. Slashdot wasn't exactly an overnight sensation...
Re:Insurance? (Score:1, Informative)
I ran some 300 player LAN events in the past.
I had a 1/4" thick legal document for everyone to sign at registration, but as others will tell you those are just there to provide other attorneys with a chuckle.
We held our events on military bases as well as hotels. On the base, we used soldiers for security but I had to pay their fee. Hotels had their own insurance and security (that was weak).
In several years of many events, the worst that ever happened was some hick came in and was delivering alcohol to some minors. We made him leave and then he got belligerent (he was plastered). He even fought the police and a bouncer, so he went to jail.
The other thing that occurred was a guy was drinking Smirnoff from a SQUEEZE bottle, had finished a case of BAWLS guarana and had played counterstrike for almost 3 days straight without sleeping according to his friends. He had a HUGE seizure and hit his head on the way down to the floor. He was a big guy and ended up with a big gash on his head (gushing blood) and flopping around on the floor like a fish out of water. I was thinking, "welp, there goes the long term investments...". Anyway, he was cool about it and went to a neurologist that pointed out to him the obvious: don't drink downers, uppers and then play fast paced computer games without sleeping for 3 days.
Re:Insurance? (Score:5, Informative)
I have experienced exactly what the parent author was referring to. I was at a good friend's house a few years ago for a lan party, of maybe 14-16 people, each with a regular-sized tower PC, nothing out of the ordinary for gamers. It was the first time we'd had a lan party at this location (his house) so he didn't realize that all of the outlets in the living room, and half of the dining room were all on the same breaker. After the 7th person plugged in, flames and sparks started shooting out of the back of his power supply, marring the wall and destroying the PSU. Luckily he had a spare, so he replaced it, and tried to clean up the wall later, but eventually had to end up painting it. Also luckily, the highly flammable curtains were about 3-4 feet away, but had they been closer we might have had a major incident.
To resolve the situation, we moved most of the people into the other half of the dining room so they were on a separate circuit, then everything was fine. It would have been impossible for us to have even 5 more people, let alone 40-50 more. There just wasn't enough juice in the house.
I think that the first consideration, before theft (allbeit an important thing to consider) is whether or not the location you will be having this party can withstand the power requirements of all of your equipment.
To combat theft, you can never prevent it completely, you might consider providing people with some kind of peel-resistant stickers (the kind that shred when you peel them off) that have some kind of number or letter code on them, and give that person the matching number ticket. (Kind of like a coat-check.) When they go to leave, you can scan their inventory to make sure they match.
One other thing to consider is indemnification forms, where everyone who stays signs it, saying that you are not liable for injurys from power, red-bull overdosing, partying-in-general, etc, and definitely not responsible for theft.
You might also consider charging people a nominal fee (or they can provide their own) for the purchase of a security cable set, something they can lock their PC and monitor down. Hopefully nobody's going to risk exposure for the theft of a keyboard or mouse or whatever.
The other thing is that if you're going to have a ton of people that you don't know, I'd strongly recommend getting copies of drivers licenses or something, so that you know who all was there and have some type of legal proof of it, if the police or authorities should be involved.
There are tons of things to consider, but covering your arse (CYA) should be the first priority on your list, because there's nothing worse than trying to throw a great party for others, only to be sued by several of them because some asshole ripped off their equipment, and since nobody knew who it was, they want to get the money out of you instead.
Hope that helps.
Better late than never? (Score:3, Informative)
I'm a little late, but I thought I would pitch in.
I'm "Ash", the "Director of BYOC" of the largest Bring Your Own Computer event in North America: QuakeCon. (http://www.quakecon.org)
1) A waiver. You'll want to provide it in advance of the event, not just on site. Not only is it ethically sound to allow attendees to read the terms they will be agreeing to in order to attend in advance, minors can't sign legally binding documents and they will need to have their parent/guardian sign it. You could use a variation of the waiver on www.quakecon.org (or if it's down now, you can email me and I'll send it to you). It was put together by id Software's legal team, and is probably a fine example.
2) Check-in, Check-out. Standard operating procedure for a LAN party dictates that you take record (however you prefer: text, image, video) of the "big ticket" items that an attendee brings into the event such that no one but the original person can leave with those items. Emphasis is on "big ticket", don't bother tracking mice, keyboards, Nintendo DSes, etc. Let people bring a backpack or whatever to bring those items in and out with them if they so choose.
3) Bag check. Gotta check the contents of bags coming in and out, every time, see (2).
4) Establish a single entry/exit. It's just too costly (in money or, more likely, volunteer hours) to maintain multiple entry/exit bag check points. You should only use a single egress/ingress. Of course, there will be fire doors all over the place that you may not lock. That's fine, there are two solutions. Sit a volunteer at the door to watch it, or (best ever) buy a cheap "door alarm" from an electronics store and fasten it to the door. You can't block fire exits, but you can most certainly have alarms on fire exits. We cut our security budget by a ton using these things, (the idea actually came from Sgt. Mike Bradshaw, our outstanding law enforcement partner.)
5) Do you have sponsored network hardware? If so, then don't allow anyone to bring network hardware into the event. Do you provide patch cables? Then don't allow anyone to bring patch cables into the event. Anything else requires some sort of tagging/identification system and it's likely not worth your time.
6) Prizes. If enough prizes/freebies get given out at your LAN party that it's an issue, give the sponsors a certificate to hand out with the prize to certify ownership for the bag check guys.
Of course, it would be easy to talk for pages and pages about the challenges of LAN party logistics, but those are probably the enough to get you through.
Good luck, have fun!
-- Travis "Ash" Bradshaw
48 hr lan @ a public university's solution (Score:3, Informative)