I just spoke with one of my coordination hostesses and was shocked to hear the following story:

This passed weekend at one particular wedding she coordinated, there was a thief amongst them! No on had a CLUE!

After she had seen the bride & groom off to their honeymoon night and all guests had gone their separate ways... she received a phone call from the Huntington Beach Police. They had pulled over one of the wedding guests for a DUI. As she listened to the explanation on the other end; the officer explained how they had found several women's wallets in the drunk driver's possession, one of them being hers! She had yet to discover it was missing!

The police officer told her unfortunately there are real wedding thieves (strangely this thief was an actual invited guest) who work their way up from San Diego to Los Angeles County. These thieves crash weddings for cash, photo/video equipment and valuable personal possessions. The thieves scope out large hotels and wedding venues for their unsuspecting victims. Because the celebrating guests and wedding party feel comfortable with their environment, they will walk away from purses, wedding gifts, and expensive photo/video equipment. They never suspect there could actually be a real wedding crasher amongst them! I found an article talking about this very situation.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003074082_wedthefts21.html

The police officer told her in most situations, these occurrences go unreported and the items are never recovered. However there was a good ending in this case! Because the thief got behind the wheel drunk; he was unable to escape with thousands of dollars in cash, their personal info, credit cards, drivers licenses, and more. Thank goodness no one got hurt while he was driving!

Want to protect yourself and your wedding guests, here are a few suggestions:

1. Put someone in charge of being the gift attendant. Once the festivities and dinner begins, make sure they secure all presents in a locked room. If the hotel provides valet service you may consider putting the gifts in your parent's car . Once transferred to the car make sure you cover the gifts with a blanket.
2. Tell your family, bridal party, and friends about the thieves and warn them not to bring credit cards and alot of money to the wedding. If they are bringing cameras, make sure they know not to leave them unattended
3. If you do not recognize a guest do not hesitate to talk to them to ask who they are and what guest they are attending with.
4. Lastly you may consider getting wedding insurance. Check out this website for more information  http://www.wedsafe.com/. Another more inexpensive way to go is to go through your personal insurance carrier and ask them about a general liability policy for the day of.