Straight answer: the first thing to do after a theft is export the CCTV footage immediately, onto a separate device, using the recorder's own export function — before doing anything else. Rolling storage overwrites on a schedule, often within days, and most thefts are noticed after that window has already closed. Everything else — FIR, insurance, internal review — can wait an hour. Preserving the footage cannot.
A shop owner in Ludhiana called us three days after cash went missing from the till. By the time anyone thought to check the camera, the footage from that night was gone — written over by four days of ordinary business. Nobody did anything wrong exactly; nobody realised the clock was already running the moment the theft happened, not the moment it was discovered.
That gap — between when something happens and when someone checks — is the single biggest reason theft footage goes unrecovered. Here's the order that avoids it.
Step one: export the footage, right now
Before calling anyone, before filing anything, get the footage off the recorder. Rolling storage on most DVRs and NVRs overwrites automatically once it fills up, and depending on your camera count and storage size, that can happen in days, not weeks. If you're not certain how many days of footage you actually have, assume it's fewer than you think and move now.
Use the recorder's own export function, onto a USB drive or a separate hard disk — not a phone recording of the screen. A screen recording loses resolution and strips out the timestamp metadata embedded in the original file, which weakens it as evidence later. If the recorder is inaccessible for some reason and a phone video is genuinely the only option, it's better than nothing, but treat it as a last resort, not a shortcut.
Export footage from every camera that might have caught something — the entry point, the till or storage area, and any camera covering an escape route — not just the one angle that seems most relevant. A second angle often resolves ambiguity the first one leaves open.
Step two: check your timestamps
Before you rely on the exported clip, confirm the time shown on it matches real time. Recorder clocks drift, especially after a power cut, and a footage timestamp that's an hour off can create confusion later about exactly when the incident happened — which matters if you're cross-referencing against a punch-clock record, a delivery log, or a witness account.
Step three: file the FIR
Most insurance policies require a First Information Report to process a theft claim, so this isn't optional if you intend to claim. File it as soon as practically possible after you've preserved the footage — not before, since you want to be able to hand over a clean export rather than promise one. Note the FIR number; you'll need it for the insurance claim.
Step four: log who touches the footage from here
Every time the exported footage is copied, viewed, or handed to someone — police, insurer, a lawyer, your own team — note who, when, and why. This sounds bureaucratic for a small shop, but it's cheap insurance. A copy that travelled through three personal phones and a WhatsApp group before reaching the police has a custody trail nobody can reconstruct, and that gap is exactly what gets a claim or a case disputed later.
Step five: contact your insurer with the paperwork ready
Once you have the exported footage, the FIR number, and a rough estimate of what was taken, contact your insurer. Having the documentation assembled before the call, rather than promising to send it later, moves the claim faster and avoids the insurer asking for footage that's already been overwritten by the time you get back to it.
Step six: only now, review what let it happen
Once the urgent steps are done, look at what the footage actually shows about how the theft happened — a blind spot, a door left unlocked, a shift-change gap nobody was covering. This is useful, important work, but it isn't time-critical, and doing it before steps one through four risk means the footage itself might not survive long enough for the review to matter. We build systems that make step one automatic — footage flagged and preserved the moment an alert fires, rather than relying on someone remembering in time — and we say that knowing it's also our product, so weigh it accordingly.
Where this doesn't help
None of this recovers footage that's already been overwritten. If your storage window is genuinely short — a handful of days on a busy site — the honest fix is more storage or an alerting system that flags and preserves an incident automatically, not a faster checklist after the fact. And none of this is legal advice on your specific claim or case; insurance and evidence requirements vary, so confirm the details with your insurer and, if it goes to a dispute, a legal advisor.