Shattered glass from the break-in. Photo: The Camera Store You could look at the story of the recent robbery at beloved Calgary camera shop The Camera Store as a play in three acts. Act 1: the store is robbed of over $27,000 USD worth of high-end camera equipment.
Act 2: Local and worldwide media attention helps police nab two suspects and recover most of the gear in just 48 hours.
And now, Act 3: The final piece of stolen equipment—a rare, limited edition Leica M-P Edition Safari—is returned to the shop, making this particular theft a complete failure.
Act 3 took place just before Christmas, when the Calgary police executed a search warrant—ostensibly at the home of one of the two suspects arrested previously, 60-year-old Tan Xuan Hung Bui and 36-year-old Justin Ross—where they found the stolen Leica M-P Edition Safari worth $13,000 CAD (~$10,250 USD).
Posing with the recovered Leica M-P Edition Safari Photo: The Camera Store
The Camera Store announced the recovery on its blog at the same time as the news broke in The Calgary Herald. And, as promised, the tipster who alerted the police to the sketchy online gear sale that led to the two suspects' arrest will receive a $5,000 CAD (~$3,800 USD) shopping spree at The Camera Store as a token of thanks.
According to The Calgary Sun, the 'winner' is "a gentleman from Edmonton. "
But this happy story is not without its one gray cloud. That rare Leica M-P, a collectors item, was scuffed somewhere between its theft from and return to The Camera Store. Then again, given the amount of attention this particular story has gotten, maybe that'll make the camera even MORE valuable.
. dpreview.com2017-12-27 23:54
