How many members here on RFF have been robbed of their camera?

[Guth]

I didn't want to throw Raid's thread regarding his family travel plans any further off track, so am starting a new thread as a matter of interest. What I'm curious to know is how many here on RFF have actually been robbed of their camera(s) or other photography gear for that matter while it was on their person. If so, what were the circumstances: when did this happen; where were you; what was taken; how did it happen? I'm not interested in stories involving others (be it friends, relatives, or articles in the news), but rather direct personal experiences.

 

[Canyongazer]

Never.

55+ years of lugging a camera around

wilderness areas, cities large and small, Europe and North America.
Maybe I'm just lucky.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

An entire carload in Fresno, CA.
Well, it wasn’t on my person, because it was an entire carload.

 

[Bill Blackwell]

Celebrating 65 years of unprofessional photography

😀

I've never been robbed "at gun point" but many years ago my apartment was broken into and my entire Leica R system was stolen - no insurance. It was years before I [financially] recovered from it.

 

[raid]

So far so good. No thefts.

 

[jsrockit]

My wife and I were robbed in Buenos Aires ... but they didn’t find my Fuji X70! Unfortunately, they got my wife’s bag, passport and smashed her head on the ground. I learned that day that there are areas you don’t flaunt nice things even if you think they aren’t so nice. I think they thought the X70 was in the bag.

 

[Doug]

Never.

55+ years of lugging a camera around

wilderness areas, cities large and small, Europe and North America.
Maybe I'm just lucky.

Same here, equally lucky I guess. But I did loan a Petri Half-7 (bought in Turkey) to a friend while in USAF for his temporary duty assignment in Philippines and the camera was stolen there, don't know the circumstances though.

 

[Horatio]

My first SLR, a Petri, was stolen from my dorm room when I was a freshman.

 

[PKR]

Twice. Once of all my gear. I made a quick stop at a camera store. My car was in their parking lot. The two large camera bags were camouflaged. The total time away from the car was 10 minutes. This was in Oakland, Ca.

The second time, it was a studio burglary. An inside job. An employee of my landlord grabbed a set of "emergency keys" out of his office safe. They hit the studio on a weekend. They took lenses and a spot meter. The guy was caught by the San Francisco PD. traced through a pawn shop. Nothing happened to the guy and his pals as, his father was a US Senator at the time.

An elaborate alarm was installed in the studio. No more emergency keys for the landlord. Others in the large building were hit after my event. Employees of the landlord were again suspected but, no proof. The studio was in the South of Market area in San Francisco. The neighborhood was full of photographers and Labs.

I always thought, I'd have theft problems when traveling with lots of gear but, never a problem over many years.

 

[das]

Sometimes the value of the original theft gets higher as time goes on. 15 years ago, my place was broken into and my Hexar RF and IV Summicron 35/2 were stolen. Paid about $750 for that lens at the time. Now these lenses selling for $2500+. 🙂

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Burglarized at home, while I was away, but never in four circumnavigations of the planet. It was the neighbors who broke in, stole my D2Hs, D2X, 2 lenses, as well as some film cameras owned by my housemate. They neglected to pick up the green Domke bag that contained a Nikon SP with 3.5cm f/1.8, 5cm f/1.4, 10.5cm f/2.5, and a Leica M4 with 50mm DR Summicron. If that had happened, I would have probably tortured the neighbor I knew stole the gear. Those were dark times with some seriously dark thoughts running through my head.

Phil Forrest

 

[Guth]

My wife and I were robbed in Buenos Aires ... but they didn’t find my Fuji X70! Unfortunately, they got my wife’s bag, passport and smashed her head on the ground. I learned that day that there are areas you don’t flaunt nice things even if you think they aren’t so nice. I think they thought the X70 was in the bag.

I'm very sorry to learn of this and hope that your wife wasn't injured too seriously. While the stories of theft are very unfortunate, thus far it seems that you (and your wife) are the only one to have experienced a robbery. I wonder how it was they overlooked the camera, was it on your person under a jacket or something like that?

 

[Rob-F]

My wife and I were robbed in Buenos Aires ... but they didn’t find my Fuji X70! Unfortunately, they got my wife’s bag, passport and smashed her head on the ground. I learned that day that there are areas you don’t flaunt nice things even if you think they aren’t so nice. I think they thought the X70 was in the bag.

How long ago was that? That is not the kind of thing that one can get over easily or quickly. It must have been a terribly traumatic experience. I'm sorry to hear that this happened.

 

[Miles.]

Not on my person, but still somewhat relevant to discussion:

My SSD, with a month's worth of photos on it, was stolen by a Peruvian border "inspection" agent in 2013. It was stored below deck on a bus I took across the border. Only realized it when I arrived in Cusco later that morning and found an open zipper.

The guy likely sold it for $20, though little did he know I would've given him thousands to have those photos back.

Live and learn.

 

[Leica0Series]

Not on my person, but in college I was working for the school newspaper and a photo colleague, who was an addict, stole my brand-new black Nikon FM-2 and a couple of lenses and sold them for drugs. I got insurance money, bought a friend's chrome FM-2 and shot with that for about the next decade.

For years I had plans to show up at the thief's door one night, ring the doorbell and proceed to beat him with a baseball bat, but never did and now I've forgotten his name. May have to go through my old yearbooks. ...

I left my X-Vario on the back of a chair at the Greene Turtle in downtown DC one night and thought it was gone, but a waiter turned it in and I got a call from them a couple days later to pick it up. I left a good finder's fee for the waiter.

 

[jonmanjiro]

I've never had any photographic gear stolen while carrying it (or any other time - touch wood) but the video of a photographer getting his lens stolen from his camera while it was hanging from his neck sure made me more cautious when traveling. Happened in St. Petersburg back in 2012 according to the date stamp. Dashcam video of the incident at the link below.

https://petapixel.com/2013/07/09/vi...-has-camera-lens-stolen-from-around-his-neck/

 

[jarski]

How long ago was that? That is not the kind of thing that one can get over easily or quickly. It must have been a terribly traumatic experience. I'm sorry to hear that this happened.

yes sounds like traumatizing event 🙁

my M8 was once almost stolen. this happened in traveler dormitory while I was sleeping. they broke into my bag and were rushing, and were satisfied getting my phone and computer (data backups were available, and insurance covered both).

 

[jonmanjiro]

my M8 was once almost stolen. this happened in traveler dormitory while I was sleeping. they broke into my bag and were rushing, and were satisfied getting my phone and computer (data backups were available, and insurance covered both).

IIRC that was in Helsinki the night before we met up back in 2011?! No doubt having backups and insurance helped, but I remember thinking you were very calm considering what happened. I would have been irate!

 

[Freakscene]

In Kosovo in 1999 a Serbian irregular pointed a Zastava M70 (a Yugoslavian AKM copy) at me from about 4 feet away and indicated I should give him my 2Nikon F90x cameras with 35-70 and 80-200 lenses. I am 174cm and at the time might have been 70kg. This guy was 190 cm and 100kg easily. A really big guy. I put my hands up and leaned over acting like I was going to give them to him. As he stepped forward I headbutted him hard enough to concuss myself. He fell and dropped the Zastava, which I picked up. I assume he is still running. I got a snap of him as he ran away. It was a really stupid thing to do, but I did go there to see some serious action.

In modern wars there is often a ‘grey zone’ between civilian and military control areas where rule of force is the only control. Awful.

Marty

 

[jarski]

IIRC that was in Helsinki the night before we met up back in 2011?! No doubt having backups and insurance helped, but I remember thinking you were very calm considering what happened. I would have been irate!

yes it was quite annoying, especially because I didnt know at that point how much could be recovered. but not a traumatizing situation like some of us have had.

edit: most riduculous thing was that I had just completed a round the world trip, traveling through several continents. and then going back to my home city get my stuff stolen there 😀