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HD camera thieves on the loose in Hong Kong

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Happy camera thief
From Boingboing:
We're a small, independent television production company in Hong Kong... last week, a group of con men ripped off a load of very expensive professional tv gear from us... cameras, tripods, a recording deck, wireless microphones... lots of stuff. They were posing as a Portuguese production company... very professional-seeming. They even shot footage of Hong Kong with our crew for two days before they did a runner with the gear! At any rate, we got a photograph of one of them, who for some reason thought it would be okay to pose for a tourist snapshot CARRYING THE CAMERA HE WAS ABOUT TO STEAL.

The victims of the scam are Hong Kong based production company APV, (see their website for details about the perpetrators of the production equipment theft, including a high resolution version of the image reproduced above, and a scan of one of the con men's name cards).

The con artists might end up trying to scam another company in China, or sell the gear on the Mainland, so beware of people wanting, renting or selling production gear, particularly HD cameras. The cameras stolen from APV were DigiBetas, not HD, but according to Christpoher Slaughter of APV, "they were definitely looking for HD rigs at first."

If you have any information about the con men, APV's contact information is here.

Being a production company has its advantages when dealing with scams like this: APV have produced a short video about the scam, and put it on Youtube.

Youtube URL for this video: Lusa Producoes are thieves

 
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CALL FOR HELP: HD CAMERA THEFT IN PARIS, FRANCE

The Theft
---------

At the end of June, 2006, approximately half a million dollars worth of
HD camera gear, decks, and lenses was stolen by a group of criminals posing
as clients. The theft took place in Paris, France, at the Orly airport.
The principal thief, who called himself Amos Laufer of International Film
Consulting, spent over a month working with our company to plan a complex
production project, part of which involved arial HD shooting from a helicopter.
On the day that our crew showed up to conduct a test shoot and mount the
gear on a ground base and on the helicopter, Mr. Laufer and his associate
forcibly stole the equipment and disappeared.


The Impact
----------

Being robbed by a client who spent over a month working closely with us
to plan a production came as a tremendous shock. The gear that was stolen
represents the livelihood of our company. This kind of crime destroys companies
and lives, and we would like to call upon everyone in the worldwide production
community to 1) be aware and careful to avoid falling for similar trickery;
and 2) to do everything possible to help us find and apprehend these criminals
so that they can't victimize others.


How to Help
-----------

The French police are working hard on this case, and they need leads. The
gear that was stolen represents the cream of the crop of HD production equipment.
In particular, the two Sony HDW F900P cameras, the HDW2000P deck, and the
HD stabilized Canon 40x10 lens, are items that can be noticed and traced
by concerned camera operators and video professionals. We would therefore
like to request that all HD operators to keep a careful eye out for this
gear, particularly when conducting shoots in parts of the world where the
equipment may be relatively rare and difficult to trace, including: Africa,
the Middle East, Asia, and South America.

Please contact us or the French police ASAP should you have any leads or
ideas on this case. Particularly, if you notice this kind of gear for sale
or rent, you can check the serial numbers (list below). One of the HDW900
cameras has a serial number of 11110, which is particularly easy to remember.
If you see HD cameras bearing serial numbers that have been erased or modified,
that would also be grounds for suspicion.

Our contact information is the following:


HD Camera Theft
BusinessFilm Productions
19 rue des Frigos
75013 Paris, France
Tel. +33 (0)1.45.70.83.42 (when dialing from the U.S., it's 011.33.1.45.70.83.42)
theft@businessfilm.com


To contact the French police directly:

Direction de la Police Judiciare
67, avenue de Stalingrad
94800 Villejuif, France
Tel. +33 (0)1.45.59.79.49
Fax. +33 (0)1.45.59.79.34
Plainte no. 2006/1546

Aside from keeping an eye out for the gear, please contact us with leads
relating to the individual and his phony company (Amos Laufer with International
Film Consulting), any similar crimes you may know about, or anything at
all that you think might help.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD -- forward this website to your friends! We'd like
to thank everyone in advance for taking the time to read this message and
help out. Substantial leads resulting in the capture of the criminals or
seizure of the gear will be rewarded.

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