GIGA-GOBLINS: A Whimsical Tale of a HALLOWEEN HARDWARE HEIST
The night was dark; stormy and wet... a night to clutch your coat and hurry home to bolt the doors and check the latches. This night was All Hallow's Eve, a time for darkness and terrible deeds.
No one was more aware of the wind and dark than a young man closing up Discovery Incubator, a large dark building on Manor Road. Turning out lights and locking doors, he had no idea all electricity would fail, plunging the entire neighborhood into darkness.
But worse, he thought he was alone in the old building. He wasn't.
Sounds like a good campfire story, right? But the evil in this tale was not fiction: a couple of months ago, in the early hours after Halloween, unwelcome trick-or-treaters apparently helped themselves to more than $16,000 in computer gear from Austin Discovery Incubator.
On October 31st/November 1st, a burglar may have hidden in the building at 2002 Manor Road, waiting until all staff left. Then sometime after 3 a.m., during a power blackout, he or she let in confederates to help carry off a load of computer equipment.
The crooks may have had an unpleasant moment themselves, however. One router and additional computer systems were left sitting on the floor after having been removed from their installations. Detectives think the electric lights may have flashed back on during the theft, perhaps causing some sudden laundry problems for the startled thieves.
Unfortunately, investigations in the weeks since the theft have not discovered any solution to the mystery. Now, as the inquiry remains active, Austin police are asking for public help, circulating a description of the stolen equipment. A reward has been offered for useful information.
Click here for a list of the hardware stolen.
Even at the best of times, paying customers were never abundant at the Incubator. Virtual Reality rental was very trendy but business never took off; the expensive equipment was returned. Then the Halloween theft. Some describe it as the final nail in the Incubator's coffin.
Shortly after the theft, Incubator owner Brad Kittel told me that to rebuild information lost along with the hardware might be even more expensive than replacing the equipment itself. As further distress, Kittel says fine print policy complications have obstructed burglary coverage for the missing items: insurance has paid very little so far. (Getting purchase documentation from defunct CompuAdd is one problem.)
The rest was downhill. Efforts to attract computer group meetings and new customers customers were not successful. The only bright spot was growing traffic for a Ruta Maya coffeehouse and a bar newly installed in the east end of the building.
But these were not enough to reverse the decline. Around Christmas a notice appeared on chained Incubator doors, "Closed for the Holidays" and promising new hours to be announced in January... a promise never to be fulfilled. Instead, use of the facility was offered for private groups, by appointment.
To this day, the Discovery Incubator telephone number is answered with a recorded message explaining they were "closed for the holidays" and promising they will "reopen in January for Special Events." The owner plans renewed activity; audio and video studios are fully functional. While seeking outside investors, he is working with organizations and public agencies (UT, Texas Film Commission, GoGo Studios) to offer training facilities. But clearly, an innovative experiment has ended.
Why didn't it succeed financially? Your guess is as good as any...
Kittel feels he simply didn't have enough funding to incubate the Incubator: long term support and extensive promotion would have been necessary to build sufficient public attendance. He describes two of his decisions as "Bad Ideas." Investing in expensive Virtual Reality equipment never attracted enough rentals to defray the costs. And he wishes he hadn't purchased so much CompuAdd hardware, despite their promises of "great support." Kittel says "4 of the 6 computers they delivered didn't work. And my own support people wound up solving problems for CompuAdd, not the other way around."
Some other patrons have publicly claimed the east Austin location was at fault. Others disagree, pointing out the East Side Cafe across the street is continually overflowing with customers and a new one is now opening.
The Incubator facility itself was also criticized, once described as a "dark and unwelcoming dungeon." But I suspect a crowd of customers talking and drinking would have lightened this impression. Another possibility is the rental rates ($8/hour) were perhaps a bit pricey.
IMHO: despite fashionable publicity the "Internet Coffeehouse" concept itself is still largely unproven as a moneymaker. Without additional revenue, like substantial food or drink sales, there may not be enough market for computer rentals. The majority of people willing to spend time and money on the Internet are almost certain to own computers.
In Retrospect, the Austin Discovery Incubator broke new ground with an imaginative new vision for the city. And though we may wish it lasted longer, the Incubator added much to our community while it was here.
Journalist Gene Crick writes and edits for numerous publications and is president of MAIN (Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network), perhaps the largest community service infomration project on the Internet. Your comments and suggestions are invited to: gcrick@awpi.com
(c) 1996 - copyright Gene Crick, published in Austin Axis.