Photographer has his gear stolen, claims police do nothing

A seasoned British press photographer, Richard Pohle, recently had his gear stolen in London. To add to the stress, he claims that local police allegedly failed to react despite having the suspect’s location and even a photo of the thief.

Pohle has been a staff photographer at The Times of London for over 25 years. At the time of the theft on September 3, he was covering the premiere of the film Lee in Leicester Square. During the shoot, his gear bag was stolen, with his gear and laptop inside. Using the Find My app on his iPhone, Pohle tracked his AirPods, also in the bag, across the River Thames to a specific address in South London. What’s more, Pohle’s colleague even snapped the suspect’s photo. He’d unknowingly snapped a picture of the man eyeing a camera bag just moments before the theft.

Feeling confident he could pinpoint the thief’s location, Pohle went to Charing Cross police station to report the crime. Presenting the suspect’s photo and the real-time location of his laptop, Pohle got a disappointing response. According to him, the civilian worker dismissed his plea for immediate action, citing a lack of resources, and handing him a crime report form.

The Times of London, one of the UK’s oldest and most respected newspapers, contacted the Metropolitan Police to ask about the incident. Following this, Pohle received a call from a detective chief inspector who confirmed that CCTV footage from Leicester Square showed the man reaching for his bag. However, in his article for The Times of London, Pohle expressed skepticism that ordinary citizens would receive the same level of attention.

The Metropolitan Police later issued an arrest warrant for the suspect and visited the address where the bag was tracked to, but no one was home. “Device tracking can often be helpful for officers when tracking down stolen items,” the Metropolitan Police later said in a statement to The Times of London. “However, the technology does have limitations and is not always accurate. The pinging of a device to a location on its own does not give officers the powers to enter an address for an [offense] of this level.”

Sounds familiar?

Last year, photographer Justin Schuck had a similar experience. His car was broken into, and $24,000 worth of gear was stolen. Using Apple AirTags hidden in his camera bags, he tracked the stolen items to a known fencing operation in San Francisco. After reporting the crime to the police, they didn’t respond to calls and only provided a vague email stating they couldn’t share details due to ongoing investigations.

We recently reported about photographer Benj Haisch, who also had his gear was stolen. He also managed to track down the bag and the thieves thanks to AirTags. But instead of calling the police, he confronted the thieves himself and caught the whole thing on camera.

Of course, there are some steps you can take to not have your gear stolen in the first place. Keep it near you, keep an eye on it, and don’t leave it in a car (especially in San Francisco, I guess).

[via PetaPixel]

---