This is an unfortunate incident that happened to a neighbor over Memorial Day weekend and a reminder to all neighbors to make sure you don’t leave any valuables, both money-wise and of personal value, on your porches. A neighbor, Mike, who lives on the 4400 block of Larchwood Ave reports that his camera bag with photo and video cameras and other equipment (all about $1200 worth) was stolen off his porch after he left it there by accident. Mike left his bag and some other items on their porch on Sunday night after he and his wife returned home from introducing their newborn baby to family. Photos and videos of the meeting were on the cameras.
The camera bag was stolen between 11:30 p.m. on Sunday and 3 p.m. on Monday when Mike discovered that it was missing: “I accidentally left some items on our front porch… Although most items were still there, someone stole my camera bag, complete with my Pentax K10D camera, Tamron AF18-250mm lens, external flash unit, and Kodak zi8 small handheld video camera. Also, miscellaneous batteries, 2 memory cards, a lens filter.”
Mike says that he filed a report with the police. “As you can imagine, we are upset about losing around $1200 worth of equipment. But we can’t replace photos and videos of our family meeting our baby,” he writes.
Update: The stolen cameras and lens are not very common, Mike adds, so if anyone sees them at a local resale, pawn or flea market, please call him 610-389-0985.
May 29th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
What a shame. Report to police and scour craigslist and sell-in electronics stores, like cex on south street.
May 29th, 2013 at 12:12 pm
Very sad, and unfortunately completely predictable. My neighbors have a bbq on the porch; I’m amazed it’s still there.
May 29th, 2013 at 1:45 pm
Oof, that sucks. I’m surprised they even left anything. People really will steal lots of stuff, valuable or not. Someone nabbed my strawberry plant off my porch– I figured the fact that it couldn’t be worth more than a couple of bucks would make it safe, but I guess not.
May 29th, 2013 at 9:28 pm
This is unfortunately all too common in west Philadelphia. Maybe it’s a sign that it’s not exactly the best place to raise a baby anymore….
May 30th, 2013 at 9:23 am
It’s common everywhere in the city. If you leave something valuable out, there’s a good chance it won’t be there when you return.
I’m curious as to when this area was ideal for raising a baby in your opinion. Was it during the crack epidemic of the 80’s and early 90’s? Was in the mid-90’s when the Russian student was murdered on the 4200 block of Pine? When exactly was West Philadelphia better than now? 1890?
May 31st, 2013 at 3:53 pm
This stinks, but it’s hardly surprising that a bag left on a porch overnight would be gone the next day, *anywhere* in the city.
May 31st, 2013 at 10:59 pm
All to common everywhere, not just the city, petty theft of opportunity is just as prevalent out in the burbs…
May 31st, 2013 at 11:00 pm
*too!