Mijn excuses dat dit in het Engels is, maar mijn Nederlands is nog niet goed genoeg om mijn frustratie over deze situatie uit te drukken.
I’m a small jewelry designer living in the Netherlands. I’ve spent years building my brand from scratch, designing hand-painted enamel jewelry, and talking to every customer face-to-face in physical shops and outdoor markets. I enjoy sharing the story behind each work with my customers.
Things were going well; I was even planning to grow my eenmanzaak into a BV this year.
I had heard about theft problems now and then, but I always imagined if it ever happened to me, I would be strong enough to fix it.
I was so naive. In 3 days, my world collapsed.
The First Theft
It started with a concept shop I consign with. About a year ago, in just 2 days, 5 of my original pieces were stolen. The shop owner told me to "just watch more carefully." I reached out to H via a chat group—another victim who had lost so much to repeated thefts. We encouraged each other. I decided to work day and night to recover, while H kept asking the insurance and police for help.
The Half-Minute that Broke Me
This year, during the first weekend of May, I was at a market. I saw someone selling over 10 pieces of MY designs, only 50 meters away from my own booth. In those 30 seconds, my body started shaking uncontrollably.
First, I saw 1 or 2 pieces. I thought, "I'm being copied." Then 4 or 5 pieces. I thought, "How can they replicate my technique so perfectly?" Then I saw my Significant Work. My heart sank—I thought my collaborators had betrayed me. Finally, I saw pieces I haven't even launched yet on the table.
I was trembling. The fear of the unknown and the loss of trust... When I finally got my voice back, I was almost in tears. "Where did you get these?" I flipped the jewelry over one by one—they all had my logo on the back. I was a ghost for the rest of that day.
The most twisted part? The seller was H. The same H I had messaged a year before. We had only chatted online, so we didn't know each other's faces. Over the year, the police and insurance hadn't helped H at all. H found so many stolen goods being resold for cheap on second-hand platforms and flea markets that H eventually started buying them just to recover the losses.
The victim became a fence for thieves. I was devastated. H apologized and gave my things back, but we all know this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Drama of My Downfall
Two days after this nightmare, I forced myself to get back up. I went to the shop to "optimize" the security and prevent more stealing. Because I was so physically and mentally exhausted from the trauma of the days before, I simply didn't have the strength to move my two massive 28-inch suitcases out of my car. I thought, "I’ll just be inside for two hours."
In those two hours, 5th May 2026 16:02-18:03, in Utrecht Springweg, while I was trying to fix the shop's security, my car was smashed. Both suitcases—including a bright red one with all my work prepared for the whole month--were gone.
The "Have a Nice Day" Bureaucracy
That wasn't even my breaking point. I called 112 and was refused because it "wasn't an emergency." (call 0900-8844 instead) I eventually went through DigiD and signed the form on the police website. Now, I have to wait.
During the wait, I spent days in a bureaucratic maze trying to get camera footage. Company A sent me to B, B to City Hall. Finally, I got a manager. I begged him: "I don't need to see it, just BACK IT UP before it's overwritten!" He said: "Regulation. We only act if the police ask." Me: "But what if the police don't call in time? How long is your storage? 24 hours?" Him: "Confidential. I can't tell you."
I was speechless. He ended with: “Yeah? Have a nice day!” and hung up.
The World is Ridiculous
I am beyond desperate. I've checked every neighbor and trash bin nearby the parking place--Parkeren Springweg Utrecht. I keep thinking about how I could have done better. People say "buy insurance," but insurance companies aren't innocent. They make you buy 100 policies and still find ways to fail you.
Every part of this system protects the perpetrator, not the victim. The cost of crime is ZERO. The cost of surviving as a small, honest creator is too high. Now, my partner and I are browsing second-hand sites to find our stolen work. We are literally planning to pay thieves to get our souls back.
This system challenges human nature. If being honest means being a target, and being a thief means being protected by "regulations," then what is the point? I might as well be a thief too.
[HELP! There are now over 500 pieces of my jewelry circulating in the Dutch secondary market at "junk" prices. I still have a tiny spark of hope that the thieves might toss the suitcases in a corner of the city, maybe in Utrecht.
Every piece has my brand logo EPon the back. My design is very spicific, they are all blue and white painted metal, like delft-blauw. My business cards were inside. If you ever see the style or jewelry with this logo in the photos below, please, please let me know.]
