Last night getting home late from work (about 10:30 PM) I took a taxi, stopped a block before my apartment building at a 7-11 to buy a few things and walked back home. Open the apartment door, eye the place where I normally leave my camera bag but I realize I don’t have it with me.
Oh shit…
A Canon 450D gone, together with a Canon G10, a Sigma 105mm lens, Sigma 10-20mm, Canon 18-55mm, extra batteries, remote, and assorted accessories. I guess it’s about 2000 US dollars worth of stuff at least, ouch.
This morning I went to the 7-11 and asked if they could check the CCTV camera, they where very nice and let me see how exactly at 10:22:15 a taxi stopped and a terminally oblivious idiot stepped down with a backpack but no camera bag. The quality of the video was just good enough to show an unreadable ID plate and taxi number. Bummer.
Went to the police station and contrary to all the horror stories I’ve heard about the Thai police force, I was treated very well and professionally. They filled several papers, I talked with a detective and then they sent me out in a patrol car to check the CCTV again. And again couldn’t see anything. I hope they can search by other means.
Last night my GF and I called the taxi company and they dispatched a notification, I know that the drivers must have received it because this morning I took a taxi from the same company and the driver told me he heard it in the radio. Also I left a printed page with a picture of the bag, the cameras and all the lenses, plus a not for a pretty good reward for the whole thing.
Mentioning in passing my GF I must say the this was one of those times when she shows why she’s the best. She could have ripped me a new one for being so dumb (and I would have held a light so she could see better) but instead she was all patience and sweet words. She loves taking pictures and that was as much her camera as mine, but not for a second she said anything negative or recriminatory to me.
Oh well, I’m just trying to get it out of my chest and get over with the loss. Just stuff, nothing serious. Besides people have forgotten bigger, more valuable things before, such as… (add your story and make me feel less uniquely dumb)
I left a P&S camera on a train in France, with a memory card full of images from my vacation. I was much more pissed about the images than the camera. I never got that one back.
But flying home from England many years ago I left my film camera at security after passing it through the scanner. They held it there and after I got home I called the airline, who tracked it down through the airport and I did get that one back.
Here’s a hug, sorry for that to happen to ya. I’ve lost a couple of cameras to various dumb circumstance, and sympathize. Let’s hope that some kind soul returns it all.
If not, you’ll find that you then develop a heightened sense of O Camera Where Art Thou awareness after the bad experience. I trained myself to double check check check the whereabouts of the camera at any point of transition after loosing one during travel. Basically, just stays glued in my mind before anything else.
I left my camera in a restroom at a resort in Myrtle Beach year before last. I was out taking pics of the sunrise, stopped by one of the public restrooms on the first floor to pinch a loaf, and realized I left it on the towel dispenser when I got back up to my room. I hurried back down, and by the grace of God, it was still there. That was the closest bathroom to the bar, and if it were a few hours later, I would have been royally screwed.
So far not a peep from anyone about the bag, so I guess it’s gone for ehhhr, “good”. I even left a printed page with photos of the bag and all the stuff in it with a driver from the same company, offering a 20K Baht (600 dolars) reward for it, that’s about twice what a taxi driver may make in a month here so I’d expect some enthusiasm about the search. But nothing yet so I suppose someone that got on the taxi found it and kept mum about it.
I alerted Karma. You may not get your camera back but someone is going to get $2,000 worth of a bad day. Even accounting for inflation, that’s gonna hurt.
So sorry–you can have as many hugs from me as you like.
Never lost a camera, but have however (six times) lost a now 25 year-old pair of designer sunglasses that now have been out-of-production for at least 15 years.
Each time my heart was in my throat, but each time somehow they came back to me.
The last time they were lost, went on ebay and found an excellent selection of the exact same specs. Those in excellent condition were commanding higher prices than what I paid brand new 25 years ago. (yes, yes, the prices do not compare due to twenty years of infation, but still)
On my original move from Dallas to San Diego, I somehow lost the triple strand of pearls my mother had given me after she’d inherited them from her mom. I remember packing them carefully, and I never found the box when I unpacked. sigh
I once found a camera in a rental car. This was many years ago and it was one of those regular old film cameras. Before I turned it in, I took a picture of myself with a big goofy smile. I really hope that they got it back and developed the film.
