It’s been awhile folks, but we finally have some brony convention drama for you. And not just any kind of drama: we’re talking about two night in a row of theft from a supposedly secure vendor’s room over at Fiesta Equestria. More details below the break.
Let’s start with the basics, shall we? Vendors at Fiesta Equestria were promised a 1,000 attendee convention and instead received what is closer to 400 people (including ~60 vendors and staff), and even that estimate is on the high end according to various sources at the convention. Some speculate that it’s as low as 200 at the moment. After Sunday I’m sure the real number will be somewhere in between.
“Of course the giant empty space in the middle of the vendor’s room is a good idea, every other con is just stupid!”
To make matters worse, in a giant vendor’s room that had a ton of space wasted some people actually got put right behind giant poles, often blocking the view of the table for people far away, and quite a few people were far away considering the size of the room.
A good way to tell a vendor to fuck off is to steal their shit. Another is crappy table placement. This guy got double trouble!
A lot of vendors set up Thursday night, only for a few to find out they had goods stolen Friday morning. The stolen items were reported to convention staff, but none of the vendors actually saw or heard any progress on the matter. Then Saturday morning arrived and it seemed like every vendor and their mom got hit.
And when I say “got hit” I mean literally for this busted up cash box.
One vendor in particular was pissed about this, and after seeing the convention vendor staff doing jack shit about the new thefts they decided to gather a list of items stolen and their retail value. Now, I can’t show you guys the physical list since it has real names on it with someone wishing to remain anonymous, but I can list off what they found out:
Cutie Coral- Gummy, Tirek, and Crazy Eye Twilight. $270 Retail
Table F1- Trigun Cat Toy. $10 Retail
Table A2- 2 RD and 3 Vinyl Jerseys. $114 Retail
Table A2- Damaged Cash Box, As pictured above. Retail not disclosed.
Linda ____ - Chrysalis Plushie. $75 Retail
Firebrand Kun- 5 Different Mousepads. $75 Retail
Firebrand Kun- Over a Dozen Buttons. $24+ Retail ($2 Each)
Anonymous- Laptop stolen, details not known.
Circle Art Designs- Applejack Purse. $40 Retail
Purple Pumpkin- Splatoon Hat. $30 Retail.
Not including the laptop or cash box damage, (Luckily no money was stolen from it, but if it were that would have been a grand total of… $13 in coins. This thief is that much of an asshole.), the total value on that list alone comes out to $638.
You’d think with this many poles and lack of lighting here there’d be some late night entertainment, but no.
Oh, and have I mentioned yet? That list is actually incomplete. Not even half way through talking with other vendors, convention security told him to stop what he was doing. Security considered real, actual theft at the convention to be defamation. While he did stop immediately, the head security staff member still dragged him to a corner and yelled at him for 20 minutes straight.
Defaming the convention? What convention?
Another vendor tried to get him out of it, but the security staff told them that no one was to interfere while this was going down in front of the other vendors. Remember, this poor guy was just a vendor that trusted the convention to take care of his merchandise over night only to find things stolen. If anyone should have been yelled at, it should have been security. And people wonder why no vendors ever ratted out Drawponies publicly until Horse News reported on it… It’s shit like this, folks.
I guess their souls are as empty as their average panel.
On the bright side, staff actually got off their asses and started going around the vendor’s room making their own list. Good con! On the not so bright side, vendor staff closed the entrance door closest to our vendor friend’s table for no reason other than to fuck with him. That’s a bad bad con, no treats for you tonight!
Although based on their turnout I doubt Fiesta Equestria can even afford such luxuries as dog treats.
Granted, a few minutes later a staff member from a different team opened it back up again, but don’t think that’s going to prevent us from reporting on vendor staff petty revenge! Around 4:30 vendor staff told a couple of vendors that there was going to be a staff meeting with the hotel to talk to hotel loss prevention, but sources report that none of the staff members budged right before or after that time. How do they know? Because vendor staff were all huddled together at a single place:
Yeah, give vendor staff their own table so that they can sit on their asses all day. That’ll make ‘em efficient!
And before you think I’m undermining the staff’s intelligence, how about I let you in on how the thief got in. Take a guess, c'mon, I want to hear it. Did they… hide under a vendor’s table during closing? Nope! Did they… blow hotel staff to get a 10 minute shopping spree with a five finger discount? Unlikely. No, instead it looks like they got in through an open kitchen door that connects to the vendor’s room. And this happened on both Thursday and Friday night, so I guess no one thought on Friday to check the doors. “Hmm, gee, should I double check all the doors before I go? We did have a theft last night… Naaaaaaah, I got an Apple Bloom dakimakura waiting for me in the hotel room!”
“Oh sorry, we left the keys where we keep our fucks given.”
If you know anything about the possible culprit, are a vendor that was too afraid of staff to tell them what was stolen, or are just some bored fucker at the con that witnessed some weird shit going on, give us a holler. You can tweet us (@HorseNewsMLP or @ThePerlerPony) or email us at [email protected]. There’s also a giant Contact Us button to the right… you know, if you didn’t already see it. Hopefully vendors leave this con at least breaking even, but for many of them it looks doubtful.
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