Siesta Equestria Theft: The Squeakquel

Hey, at least the chipmunks sequel got SOME people to go see it.

Sorry the followup is a day late folks, but I was too busy sitting on my ass and minding my own business on Sunday. But who the fuck wants that, right? On the bright side, waiting a day gave more time for vendors to submit letters and for us to get a more accurate theft total, so head past the more for more horse shit!

Let's start off with the letters! We've got 3 of them, and I'm pretty sure they all wanted to be anonymous... even if some of them didn't write as such, so expect to see blanked out lines. If you want an extra bit of fun, fill the blanks with "spaghetti" or "horse cock" or... whatever.

So I'm a vendor in FE! 2015
I leave a _____ on my booth Friday night and it's gone this morning.
I went to Con Ops they told me they don't see my ______ so they told me to ask the hotel.
The hotel says they don't have it, and one of the hotel guy told me it's probably stolen since it's a  con with people who loves ______.
I thought I was the only victim but later another vendor came to my booth and apparently her _____ was stolen. And, apparently many vendor has lost a stuff or two.
Some people even said all vendor has lost stuff.
There was a list the vendors can write down what they lost and the value of the staff. I saw Cutie Coral's name on it and the lost plushie has the combined value of more than a hundred.
The list was made by another vendor not the con staff.
Later the con staff came to the vendor hall and asked vendors if they have lost stuff.
Anyway I don't know much details but I'm pretty sure you can ask other vendors for more.

My name is _______________ at table __ at Fiesta Equestria.  I can definitely say that this con was a shit show before I even attended.  I have talked to other vendors and even the musicians of the con and they all agree with the same thing... the con staff lacks communication and responsibility.

Prior to the con:
Fiesta Equestria never once contacted the vendors after we sent our Paypal payment to cover the table back in February.  We were all in the dark about anything regarding the convention all the way up until we actually got here on Thursday.  Not one e-mail telling us con hours, giving us a con map, when we are able to enter the room, nothing.  Some of the vendors actually panicked because we thought we weren't part of the con.  By the way, this was the same for the musicians... they were not given one e-mail regarding when they're on stage or if they were even still performing.  Even the Thursday of the con, I asked the con staff about vendor hours and they were not able to give a straight answer.  Best line of the con:

"When is vendor set up closing tonight?"
"... About now"
Glad they told us beforehand  </sarcasm>

During the con:
When I got in on Friday morning, I immediately noticed that my ________ was damaged ($__ retail btw).  After I reported it to the vendor hall head, that's when he mentioned that a couple vendors had stuff stolen.  It prompted me to count my inventory and that's when I discovered my ______ were missing.  I didn't hear much about it afterwards.  When they struck again Saturday, that is when (my now new friends) _____ _____ started on their own investigation, and you know were that went.  At one point (3p - 5p), both doors of the vendor's hall were closed.  There was no more than 8 attendees (and they were attendees that already shopped earlier) in the room at that time. 

To add to the location of our vendor hall, we are in a building detached from the hotel with not a single sign pointing to the vendor's hall.  I doubt half this con knows we're here. 

Unfortunately, this con has me over $700 in the hole with all travel costs (coming from ______) and inventory losses considered and I'm highly doubt I'm getting much of that back tomorrow.  Oh well, I made good friends and I'll just laugh about this down the road.

Hope this information helps and thank you for everything you do.

Please, please keep my name anonymous. Despite the issues I would not want to be unable to work this con in the future.
I am a vendor currently and wanted to add a few things.
I was told by con staff that they were not made aware that the hotel did not lock the back door.
When asked to the hotel said no because the hotel staff needed to use it. *
That the hotel staff unlocked a main door for at least one vendor before the ally coordinator showed up that morning (against the instructions they were given) *
One booth had someone break in to their "goodie/grab bags" and eat candy, leaving the trash at the booth. *
It was the vendor who got yelled at ' s birthday. *
When the vendors who were going around warning people and gathering a list of stolen items they were very professional about the whole situation. I was not under the impression they were explicitly blaming the con for the thefts and they simply wanted to have the backs of the other vendors and to get the process started.
The head of security is also a local police officer. *
The ally coordinator along with a few vendors (ones I know rather well) stayed the night in the ally last night (Saturday night) to keep an eye on things.
The con tried it's best to be accommodating on the above information and had beds braught down, a tv, video games, movies and there was talk of pizza making an event of a "dealer's lock-in"

All things with a (*) next to it are simply things I heared in the ally and not something that I expierenced myself.

So those letters confirmed quite a few rumors I'd been hearing from other vendors. Here are some of the things we missed last time from both the letters and other sources on Twitter:

- The laptop was actually owned by PVL, and it just turned out another media member borrowed it. I'd say our bad but just like the con is blaming the hotel for the theft, I'm gonna blame PVL. :)
- The security staff was actually two off duty cops that constantly kept their guns at their side. Goddamn it Texas.

Our heroes, everyone.

 - The vendor that got yelled at? Yeah, it totally was his birthday, I just didn't include it last time because I thought some of might think it was too cheesy to be true. "What, was he gonna retire the next day too? Pffffft, bullshit."
 - In the vendor's room someone was selling bootleg pony goods, including... mousepads with Drawponies traced prints on them? Yeah, weird choice. To make things weirder, two Drawponies banners were also sold at the charity auction Sunday for around $150. I guess that's one way to get rid off stock...
 - On Saturday night a few vendors and staff stayed over night in the vendor's room, hotel beds and all.

One pair of vendors actually stayed up all Sunday night in the vendor's room taking turns sleeping. That's how little they trusted the con.

- On Sunday closing ceremonies had under 100 people, and that includes all the staff, media, and special guests in the room. While we don't have number totals, we can pretty much promise you that if the con advertises 1000 people this year they're lying through their teeth.
- Instead of only one purse priced at $40 being stolen, the vendors found out 10 were stolen when they checked their bins. That's $400 total, and if we add in $20 for the cash box our new total is $1058. Thanks for hitting new fandom lows, thiefs.
- There were actually multiple people that snuck in Thursday and Friday night, so unless you spot some of the stolen items on Ebay or at a Texas meetup it's gonna be tough to sniff them out. Sure, it could be staff... but it could have also been anyone else that noticed they never locked the doors at night.

Unfortunately while there are funds for the vendors in the talks, no one has really gone through with gathering up money to make up for the thefts. Yes yes, that includes us, we accept that we're a bunch of lazy assholes. However, if one does pop up we'll be sure to let you guys know!