Sorry, but this sounds fake.
How so? The only thing I'm skeptical about is I would imagine his local PD would be way busy to go on a petty theft bust but other than that it sounds legit.
Depending on the lens, it could be grand theft.
How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
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Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#12Sorry, but this sounds fake.
How so? The only thing I'm skeptical about is I would imagine his local PD would be way busy to go on a petty theft bust but other than that it sounds legit.
I assume their easy cooperation indicates the guy is living in a reasonably affluent suburb where the police are both well-equipped and not very busy.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#13If true, I'm pretty sure this wasn't in San Francisco or Oakland. I could maybe see one of the smaller Peninsula PDs helping out like this.
Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous (if the police weren't there); there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun. If you theoretically have a CCW and can be legally carrying a gun for self defense, it's still physically dangerous, and legally risky (a lot of legal/self defense advice is that if you're going to confront someone like a cheating spouse or whatever, you should not have even a legally owned gun with you, since if things escalate, it can get much worse.) Even a "righteous" self defense shoot in California is probably going to cost you $50-100k in legal -- absolutely worth it to save your life or the life of someone you care about, not really worth it for anything else, including breaking up strangers fighting on the street.
Much safer to just gather information and give it to the police.
I don't know how much risk I'd be willing to take for a $350 camera. (if it had a 5.0 f/1.0L or 1200mm, capture/torture/killing might be appropriate, though)
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#14Sorry, but this sounds fake.
I'm pretty sure it's real. I went to high school and college with Jeff Hu. He shared the links to this on Facebook. Definitely happened. There's the whole reddit thread too: http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/1ajifl/someone_...
I'm not sure he or anyone else had anything to gain out of lying about this. I had a Canon T2i for quite sometime and it definitely does embed the camera's serial into each captured image.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#15I would be curious who invited the person, or how the person found out about the party.
Could be his game. Party looks big enough while walking by, sneak in when it's starting to get a little hazy, grab a little something and stroll out.
Or he was just a scummy fuck.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#16If true, I'm pretty sure this wasn't in San Francisco or Oakland. I could maybe see one of the smaller Peninsula PDs helping out like this. Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous (if the police weren't there); there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun. If you theoretically have a CCW and can be legally carrying a gun for self defense, it's still physically dangerous, and legal…
I take it you don't listen to rap music?
If you did, I think you'd have a different viewpoint as a G.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#17Good job!
All this story lacks is a serious beatdown, or at least a tasering to the balls.
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#18[deleted]
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#19If true, I'm pretty sure this wasn't in San Francisco or Oakland. I could maybe see one of the smaller Peninsula PDs helping out like this. Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous (if the police weren't there); there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun. If you theoretically have a CCW and can be legally carrying a gun for self defense, it's still physically dangerous, and legal…
I take it you don't listen to rap music? If you did, I think you'd have a different viewpoint as a G.
Some rap music gives good legal advice (Jay-Z's "99 Problems" is about 95% accurate, it just oversteps the rights argument in a few places). A lot gives really bad advice. I'm a lot closer to George Tenet with the rented Maybach without tints or rims, spending money on businesses rather than 80 gold chains :)
Re: How I Busted a Thief Who Tried to Sell My Camera on Craigslist
#20Fake... No craigslist buyer or seller ever arrives on time.