Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/17

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica-Users List Digest V2 #320
From: Alex Brattell <alex@zetetic.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 11:55:00 +0100

>Alex Brattell wrote:
>> 
>> The following Leica equipment was stolen in Mexico City on the morning of
>> 3rd April;
>> 
>> Leica M6 camera body (chrome)   #2331793
>> Leica 35mm Summicron f2 ASPH lens & filters     #3801176
>> Leica 50mm Summilux f1.4 lens & filters #3690310
>> 
>
>SNIP
>
>Alex,
>
>At the risk of forcing you to relive this unpleasantness, do you mind
>telling us how it was stolen? I, personally, would find it informative
>so that I could better protect myself and my equipment. Experience is
>the foundation of wisdom. Sorry about your loss.
>
>Carl S.
>

Thanks for various messages of sympathy, much appreciated as I'm still
smarting a bit from this - This is the first time I've ever lost a camera
whilst travelling, just ironic that it was my perfect new toy rather than
the battered old faithfuls I just updated from after so much thought and
research. Oh well, at least we're safe and I'm insured (hopefully with a
company who does what it says it will in its adverts). 
Here, for those interested, are the gory details from the insurance report -
so easy in retrospect to see what went wrong, but when it happens, you just
get fed straight through it!

I was travelling in Mexico with my girlfriend. We took an overnight bus to
Mexico City on the night of 2nd/3rd April 1998 in order to change to another
bus (we did not plan to stay in Mexico City).
We arrived at Mexico City's TAPO bus station at approximately 4.10am and
went to a booth where taxi tickets were sold. We had not encountered this
system before. We bought a ticket to Autobuses Del Sur, the bus station from
where we were to continue our journey. We then walked through an underpass
towards the taxis. There were a couple of official looking men standing by
the railing. One of them approached us and asked in Spanish for our ticket.
Neither of us can speak more than a few words of Spanish, and we indicated
this. This man (40's, 5'6" approx, grey pants, olive jacket, short dark
hair) asked our eventual destination, we said Taxco. He replied in English
that we were indeed going to the right bus station and that we should
accompany him, he would show us to the taxi. This was of course before dawn
and at that point we had no reason to doubt that this was not his job.

He showed us to a taxi near the head of a busy and totally chaotic taxi
rank, a standard Mexico City VW Beetle Taxi with only one front seat, and
passed the ticket to the driver saying to us "no more money" indicating that
we had already paid in full for the journey. We later realised, on our
return to this bus station, that at this point we should have been given a
copy of the ticket by the official taxi helpers, which for me was proof of
collusion between the unofficial 'greeter' and the taxi driver (with whom no
words were spoken). I knew at that point, by the weight of my camera bag,
that my possessions were intact.
All the bags were piled up in the front of the taxi on the floor, we were on
the back seat. I sat immediately behind the bags and had a clear view of the
driver who sped off, along deserted roads at a higher speed than we had
previously seen in Mexico. We thought nothing of this as it was the capital
and the roads were deserted. He also, we later realised, drove a very long
way to the second bus station, a journey that took some 20 minutes but was
half that when we returned to TAPO. At no time did I see him lean towards
our luggage, he really looked as if he was fully occupied in driving. He
dropped us over the road from the bus station and pointed to where we should
go. We unloaded the taxi and he sped off immediately. The moment I picked up
my camera bag on its own I realised something was wrong. During the journey
the driver had managed to gain access to my bag in the darkness (a Fogg bag
with a good front catch), remove the large book that was on top of the
photographic equipment, take out my Leica equipment, accessories and
personal effects, replace the book and close the bag without us suspecting
anything. 

We realised that we had been the victim of a skilled professional thief, and
immediately looked for the Police, although we had no names or registration
numbers. We quickly found a squad car with 2 policemen who basically
shrugged their shoulders and would not express any interest in us. 
We took a taxi back to TAPO bus station and found a police official who
spoke minimal English. He was helpful but had no proper system to help us -
there was video surveillance but no tapes in the recorders so we were unable
to identify the 'Greeter' to him. He recommended that we go to Regional
Police Headquarters. We took a taxi there, and it was at this point that we
were shown through the taxi system without being diverted to a 'parallel
system' and realised exactly what had happened to us. We met a police
officer at Regional Police Headquarters who was sympathetic but again spoke
minimal English - he said that we must go to the airport where there was a
24 hour police station where we would find an officer who spoke good English
and had the correct forms. This we did, we filed a report (copy enclosed)
and were told by the officer there that he sees the same thing happen
regularly, to Mexicans as well as tourists, and that we were lucky that we
weren't threatened with a weapon and robbed comprehensively. This is the
first time I have ever been robbed whilst travelling; we were unlucky enough
to run into a professional set up outside either of our experience, despite
being fairly seasoned travellers.