A massive haul was taken from photographers Adorama Rewind’s Seth Miranda (and others) by none other than fellow photographer David Scott Holloway who admitted his guilt to police upon arrest.
Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that he was caught on surveillance cam ripping off his peers but that’s a whole other thing.
Though the gear was taken some three months back, Miranda reports that he and the others that had their stuff stolen were only made whole just recently.
In total, the gear was valued at anywhere between $USD 12,000 and $USD 15k. Interestingly, the whole thing is a bit more complex than a simple theft and seems to be some kind of combination of Holloway’s impressive resume and the use of his peers’ confidence in him that tinges the entire thing with an extra element of betrayal.
Having worked for CNN and the late Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, Holloway is pretty well known in the industry. Having just joined the studio in Spring 2019 according to PetaPixel, it wasn’t long before he used his access to take some seriously expensive gear.
It wasn’t smooth sailing with Holloway prior to the theft, however, with reports from those involved that state he was late with paying rent on his studio space and that he often reserved areas, only to not use them later, in order to remove their availability for others in the studio.
Even though he has an impressive resume in the industry, his execution of this whole operation leaves a lot to be desired and borders on the comical.
He quit his lease in July but turned in a fake key to management. He then returned in August and then stole the gear in question.
As far as looking for leads, we’re sure the police appreciated this bread crumb trail of bad behavior and dishonesty.
PetaPixel says one photographer told them, “He thought he was so smart…He only took the elevator to the 7th floor (the studio is on 12) then he got off and took the stairs the rest of the way. On his way out, he took the stairs all the way down. All that, but he wore the same hoodie and hat you see him wearing in all of his Instagram stories.”
To make matters even worse, he apparently helped with reorganizing the studio space before he dipped out of it and targeted specific photographers’ gear in his theft.
It gets better: Even though Holloway admitted the theft to police, because he returned the gear, there are no consequences in terms of jail time for him. As you can probably imagine, the photographers impacted by his actions aren’t very pleased with that.
When asked for comment, Holloway declined to answer PetaPixel’s questions on his attorney’s advice.
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