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Author Topic: Expensive Vandalism Stories Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 07-30-2006 01:32 PM                     Shamelessly stolen from another board... I remembered one incident from a few years ago, and was just wondering what the most expensive case of vandalism anyone's delt with was? Mine was about $10,000 Canadian. A teen girl (tg) came to the theatre with a bunch of her friends for her birthday. They showed up way too early and I guess they got bored. One of tg's friends climbed behind the screen and unhooked part of the screen from its scaffolding. TG then got the brilliant idea to poke the screen. Unfortunately, without the tension on it, it ripped like paper and a nice 6-inch hole was put in the screen. The girls panicked and ran out. The police managed to catch tg and one other at the bookstore near-by. The police brought the girl back, and she was absolutely bawling. Parents were called. They were yelling so loud you could tell someone was shouting from the other end of the theatre. The parents had to pay for the new screen, and for it to be delivered from somewhere in the states. How 'bout it? Anyone have stories of SCs vandalism or unintentional destruction? ***Credit Broomjockey  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 07-30-2006 06:32 PM                        I was a lowly, teenage usher in 1982 when my theatre's chain, UA, let its deal with the projectionists' union run out. Pretty soon, we had inexperienced, assistant managers running the booth and guys picketing in front of the theatre. On a particularly busy Friday or Saturday night, at the start of the 8:00pm showing of First Blood, it became obvious that the sound was out-of-whack. Nobody on staff knew how to fix it from the booth. So we had to stop the show and issue re-admission passes to 500 people in our 35mm Dolby Surround auditorium. We looked behind the screen to see that someone had cut and removed wiring to the high-frequency horns. The manager specifically asked the staff not to tell stories blaming the picketing projectionists for this sabotage. So I won't. I have no idea how much it cost to hire a technician willing to cross picket lines to "fix" the problem. The sound system was never quite right again, but everything was perfectly tuned a few months later when we got a new 70mm system installed for Return of the Jedi. After the incident with First Blood the manager assigned an usher to sit in the front row of each of the other five auditoriums to make sure nobody got behind another screen that night. I sat through Monsignor with Christopher Reeve. The first time I ever fell asleep on the job. (Luckily, nobody went behind the screen while I dozed off.)  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-31-2006 08:52 AM                     quote: Greg Anderson (Luckily, nobody went behind the screen while I dozed off.) How would you know if they had bene back there ? Mark  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 07-31-2006 11:48 AM                     I guess the asumption was that because more wiring had not been removed while he was , then no one had crawled back there.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-31-2006 05:25 PM                     I mighta been back there.... .  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-31-2006 07:12 PM                        No major vandalism to any theatre I worked at. However, on numerous occasions I have had employees vandalize manager's cars. This usually happened after said employee was fired from thier job. The worst incident was one in which I had no direct involvement of an assistant being fired. I reported to my first night on the job - replacing the fired assistant manager. I previewed the film "Universal Soldier". When I went out to my car at 2 or so in the morning - there had been $3000 dollars damage done to my car. What a pain in the ass that was.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 07-31-2006 07:23 PM                     I had a 40 or 50 foot screen come in one day. It would not fit on the truck, so they cut the tube in half to make it fit. Not really vandalism, but pretty funny.  |  IP: Logged

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