Newbury Park Theft : $300,000 in Video Studio Gear Is Stolen

A company that supplies video, sound and lighting equipment for rock concerts and other events was scrambling to fill orders Thursday after burglars stole $380,000 worth of apparatus earlier in the week, a company spokesman said.

The company, Tasco Sound Ltd. in Newbury Park, discovered when it opened its warehouse for business Wednesday morning that its three-camera, portable studio had been stolen, said Adrian Selby, the firm’s vice president.

The portable set included sound, lighting and editing equipment and was scheduled to be used for a heavy-metal rock concert in Irvine Meadows today, Selby said. He said the set would have projected video images onto large screens at the sides of the stage.

Useful on Location

Selby said the video channel MTV had rented the portable studio in the past for on-location shooting. The portable studio made it possible simultaneously to record and edit music on location, he said.

According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Detective Ed Wyand, the robbery occurred sometime between closing at 5 p.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Wyand said the burglars apparently entered the warehouse by forcing open a skylight. They then worked their way down a rope to the floor, 20 feet below, Wyand said.

Ignoring the video equipment, worth millions of dollars, scattered throughout the warehouse, the burglars chose the equipment used to assemble the portable studio, Wyand said. The items were then put in cases and taken out through a back door, Wyand said.

The burglars somehow were able to bypass an alarm system hooked up to the door, Selby said. “They knew an awful lot about where this equipment was and how to get it out,” he said.

It was the first time the warehouse had been robbed during its eight years of operation in Newbury Park, Selby said.

He estimated that the company would lose $20,000 a week by not being able to rent out the portable studio. The company is now renting equipment from other video supply companies to fill its rock-concert orders, he said.