Photographer hunts down eBayer who has her camera

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/29/photographer-hunts-down-ebayer.html

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Early Stage Captialism! Detroit is reborn?

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I wonder if Ali Yassine thought his fifteen minutes of fame would be like this?

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I note an extreme lack of footage of him being hauled off in handcuffs by the cops…

And that’s why they do it. Oh, noez… some reporter dude yelled at him on teevee… Only when the risk of stealing is too high will people not do it.

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But… but… he’s now in Channel 2’s Hall of Shame! That’s gotta stop him from doing this anymore… People are still gonna buy his sh!t if he offers low prices…

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A young fellow tried to sell me an iPhone once. I asked him where he got it and apparently somebody …um… gave it to him …for no reason.

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What you’re saying is somebody stole items and then hawked them on ebay? I never knew…

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unfortunately, unless you have evidence that he knowingly bought stolen property; there isn’t anything you can charge him with.

Additionally, while I do feel for the photographer, she should have her gear insured and since it was stolen from her car if she had theft insurance on her car, they’d cover the value of all her camera gear (which I am hoping she hadn’t kept on the front seat there as they sort of made it out to be).

It sucks but this secondary market of stolen goods has always been around, ebay and craigslist just made it easier and further reaching.

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Nice victim-blaming there.

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No it is NOT victim blaming at all. I am stating she should have insurance on her gear (as any photographer will tell you) and I said I hope she did not leave her gear on the front seat as the images shown by the report itself.

I did NOT say “Well, she left her gear on the front seat she got what she deserved” THAT would be victim blaming.

But by all means deflect from the actual story and flame me more please. Happy Monday to you.

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Actually, it was I who gave him the phone. Knowing Trump’s tax plan would be trickling down to me any day now, I upgraded to an iphone X while waiting to hear back about a job at the Carrier plant.

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If I am taking my camera gear anywhere, I never leave it in the car (and I only have a mid-range Nikon and a few lenses, not pro gear). A few years ago I was at Golden Gate Park and a whole row of cars had had their windows broken, and a guy was standing there saying all his camera gear was gone. Of course, if you are hauling tripods, lighting and a bunch of other stuff, keeping it on your body may not be an option, but if it can fit in a camera bag, I want that bag on my body at all times.

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To be fair, you were asking for it implicitly before, and now literally.

let’s consider the possibility that what you first said focus’ on the responsibilities of the aggrieved parties and the hopelessness of a just outcome, and that’s not a happy monday, here. Doubling down is a choice. We can just go with all your interpretations and definitions, exclusively, sure thing. Here to serve. Whatever seems fair to you. Have a good day! Don’t go catching fire! Yikes!

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You ever tried to file a claim through insurance for expensive equipment before? It’s almost as big a rip off as re-buying your stolen stuff on ebay…

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No doubt. My spouse who is a professional photographer carries insurance gear for all her equipment independently of auto/home. Which makes it of course much easier for her to recoup losses from stolen or more likely damaged gear. You have no idea how careless other people can be around her stuff, like drunk wedding guests who decide to knock over lights and such.

@kiki exactly. Just to be safe.

@anon30760835 point blank the image showing her window broken and the front seat over and over again leads a viewer to think her items were on the front seat. I am going out on a fairly large and safe limb in saying I think she most likely had her gear stowed away in her trunk, which means nothing if they break the windows as most if not all cars post 2000 have trunk release mechanisms inside the car itself. Which is why I stated I hope she hadn’t left it there. I often remind my 3 kids when they are in the car with the Switch or iPad or some other small electronics to stow them in the seat backs where they are hidden properly from plain sight. There is a big difference between victim blaming and being prudent with your valuables. I would like to believe she was the later.

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I work in a downtown library and frequently see people come in with devices bought second hand off the street that are functionally useless because the original owners never released the account lock. The vast majority of the time this is because they were probably stolen, and the original thief gets a pass while the homeless guy is out 50 to 100 bucks.

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And to be honest, it looks like an SUV, which don’t have a trunk.

Which is really, really annoying when you want to securely store something. It’s almost like you need to get a safe installed. (There is a market in aftermarket security consoles (metal lock boxes) for Jeep Wranglers because they are so completely and utterly unsecurable due to the nature of the vehicle.)

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I have an Outback. So I empathize with this so much. The screen covering the back is nice and all but it’s not perfect.

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Strange, are you able to attain ownership of stolen goods according to US law?

Over here you can’t:

Section 935
No good faith acquisition of lost property

(1) The acquisition of ownership under sections 932 to 934 does not occur if the thing was stolen from the owner, is missing or has been lost in any other way. The same applies, where the owner was only the indirect possessor, if the possessor had lost the thing.

(2) These provisions do not apply to money or bearer instruments or to things that are alienated by way of public auction or in an auction pursuant to section 979 (1a).

§935 BGB

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I didn’t watch all the way through, but so what if she had insurance? Does not make the gentleman’s business model any less bad.