It happened to me!
I just got back from a beautiful week in Mexico aboard a beautiful 975 ft Cruise Ship.
It was a perfect trip. My first cruise and was I ever impressed! I took my Digital Camera that I use for all the cool photos on our web site, and I took about 200 photo’s of the entire week’s activities as well as from each port we stopped in.
On the last night of the cruise, I met a woman who looked just like Heather Locklear. (Yes I have a thing for “Amanda” on Melrose Place)
The bottom line is, I got distracted. We went to the Dance club for a last night of fun before docking back in L.A. I had worn that camera on my shoulder for a full week. It had become part of my body! But dancing to a slow song with a Heather Locklear, and having a Sony Mavica jabbing you in the side isn’t a cool thing, SO,
I set it down “just for a minute”. Right next to where we were dancing. The song finished, “Jimmy was in heaven”, and I went to the bar to buy 2 glasses of wine because it was “last call”. I returned, talked for a few minutes, and noticed that I didn’t have my camera hanging over my shoulder.
You know the rest. I looked at the floor in shock hoping that I would be surprised, but my pride and joy Sony was long gone. In a matter of minutes!
The cop, who wrote a book on how to keep from being victimized, did the most STUPID thing in the whole world, and now I’m out a $700.00 camera with nobody to blame but myself!
I of all people should have known better. But instead? Oh well, its water under the bridge so to say…The moral of the story is this.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is proven time and time again in this world. All week long I had been carrying my wallet around in my camera case. My wallet had all of my identification and credit cards inside, as well as about $500.00 cash.
It also had my police I.D which departments don’t take to kindly to when you lose those!
For whatever reason, I removed all of those items that night before going to the club and stored them in my cabin safe. I also took out the disks containing all of the photos from the trip along with the battery charger. The low life thief got my baby, but they didn’t “get it all!” It could have been worse.
Basically if it happened to me, a cop who KNOWS BETTER, it can definitely happen to you. Leaving your cars unlocked at night, or your garage doors open, is giving out an invitation for theft.
You might as well put a sign on your car that says “I’m unlocked, burglarize me!” That would have matched the note I should have put on my camera saying,
“I’m an idiot, I’m in love with Heather Locklear and I’m not paying attention, TAKE MY CAMERA!”
At the end of “CopTalk” we have hundreds of tips listed in alphabetical order that CAN SAVE YOUR PROPERTY! As well as lives. With our busiest time of year rapidly approaching we hope that you take advantage of this valuable information, to help ensure that being victimized doesn’t dampen your holiday season.
Sorry this is short, but I have to start re-reading my own material about theft prevention!
Jim Lambert
PS: To the person who stole my camera, one thing in life is sure.
What goes around comes around. I don’t hate you, you taught me a costly but valuable reminder. Someone once told me that “We are remembered by the tracks we leave behind…” You’re leaving some really fine tracks to be proud of, and that is something that YOU have to deal with…
