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Frank DiLorenzo from R&R Games, located in Hall 1 of the Messe Essen, told me that while he was sitting in his booth — with his right hand practically over the cashbox — he was asked a question from over his left shoulder, turned to answer the question, heard a crash on his right, turned back, and discovered the cashbox gone. "I thought one of my employees had grabbed it to make change, but then I realized that didn't make any sense, then I realized what had happened."
LudiCreations, also located in Hall 1 not too far from R&R Games, had a similar story, with a representative being asked for a game, going into the back room to grab it, and returning within ten seconds to find the cashbox missing. In response to this theft of €3,500, designer Dávid Turczi — who has had his designs [microfilms] and [redacted] published by LudiCreations — designed a postcard game that evening, and representatives from the publisher stayed up all night testing it, designing graphics for it, then launching a Kickstarter for it on Sunday. To date, the KS campaign for Steal This Game — a two-player design in which one player is a game publisher who is trying to keep their cashbox from being nicked by the other player — has received more than $25,000 in backing.
I heard reports of other publishers having thefts attempted against them at SPIEL 2016. Everyone is sure that some games were lifted during the event, but the loss of a few games pales against the loss of an entire day's worth of sales. Asked about preventative measures, some publishers specified that they kept their cashbox in an area inaccessible by visitors or chained to a fixed object in their booth or both. Such measures can sometimes be difficult at SPIEL given the small nature of the booths, but ideally everyone can be aware of the need for such security measures at future conventions.
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