Reporting stolen M8, XPan, and E-3 gear

[scott kirkpatrick]

In late July, 2009, our home in Jerusalem was broken into. The thieves swept up three camera bags plus a black M8 classic model (s/n 3199476) with a Zeiss 21/2.8 Biogon. One of the camera bags contained a nearly unused Fuji XT (the Hasselblad XPan) with the 45 and 90 mm lenses that I had gotten from Michael Reichman's unused goodies sale, and was doing a project with. The other two, Nova bags, contained an Olympus E-3, an E-1, and 11-22, 14-54, 50/2.0, 25/2.8, 50-200 lenses, plus an FL-50 flash and an EC14 extender.

I have reported the M8's serial to Leica and to the local distributor. Any other suggestions?. I don't know whether a fence would use E- bay or local camera shops. I am not skilled in monitoring E-bay sales, so any tips will be appreciated. If one of you sees a constellation of equipment for sale somewhere which matches this collection, please PM me.

thanks,

scott

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Totally sucks. My sympathies.

 

[HuubL]

That's awful. Were you insured? I hope your gear will be found.

 

[majid]

You could use Google alerts with the serial numbers in question. It's not all that dependable, unfortunately.

 

[Tuolumne]

Sorry to hear about it. How did they break in?

/T

 

[ZeissFan]

On eBay, you can set up and save searches for specific items. On the downside, you could be going through a large number of listed cameras on eBay.

I'm not sure how much of a criminal element contributes to these boards, so it's a guess as to how they try to sell the gear. I would guess that it's used as barter for something else, possibly the usual suspects: Guns, drugs, money, pay off a debt for drugs or guns. Or maybe the thief will keep it.

Definitely get the police involved, in case any of it is retrieved in an unrelated case.

 

[loneranger]

I am always worried about this happening, I live in a pretty safe neighberhood, but it could happen anywhere. I usually keep my camera/lens stuff in separate places around the house and not in obvious places. Consequently I am always forgetting where I put a lens or a camera and have to search for it. But it's better than losing everything.

 

[johannielscom]

Sorry to read about your loss! I hope the thief will get caught and your gear returned.

My stuff is in the bedroom at night (and so am I, beware!)

Unused gear cannot be found in the house when I'm away, I made sure of that.

I have recorded all serial numbers, together with e-mails on the purchases and payments, as well as a photograph of the item.

Still, I hope this will not happen to me!