Thieves Steal $178k Worth of Leica from San Francisco Store

San Francisco can’t be the easiest place in the world to be a photographer.

Road surrounded by high rise buildings in San Francisco.
Road surrounded by high rise buildings in San Francisco. Photo by Rezaul Karim

For those of you that have stuck with this blog for the past few years now, we have covered more than a few stories of photographers getting robbed in San Francisco. From tourists in parks to news crews to even a case of thieves tracking a man to his home, forty miles away, only to rob them, we’ve covered it all.

But today’s story kind of takes the cake when it comes to dollar amounts, some $USD 178,000 to be exact. Because that’s how much some brazen (and quick) thieves in San Francisco just lifted off of a Leica storefront, ABC News 7 reports, in addition to $USD 20,000 in damages to the store itself. How long did it take for the crew of three people to steal that much stuff? About three minutes, with one person serving as a kind of lookout and another smashing open display cases to take what was inside. ABC 7 News also reports that this isn’t the first incident of its kind in the neighborhood with a high-end Louis Vuitton boutique being the victim of a previous robbery last year along with other incidents.

Given how lucrative these kinds of robberies can be, some people wonder whether or not more could be done on the part of manufacturers to at least recover this kind of merchandise – especially if you’re an owner who has had his camera stolen and pawned off at a store. When you consider how many safeguards there are with smartphones, it’s surprising that more isn’t being done to discourage this kind of thing.

Check out our other photography headlines at this link.

[ABC 7 News]

Share:  

About Author

Kehl is our staff photography news writer since 2017 and has over a decade of experience in online media and publishing and you can get to know him better here and follow him on Insta.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *