Camera and lens stolen from car

Dubai: A photographer covering the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships says his camera and other equipment were stolen after thieves broke into his car – a silver four-wheel drive – parked in the vicinity of the tennis stadium on February 11.

The newspaper photographer said he parked the car opposite the stadium in a paid parking lot at 11.15am. “I took the office camera with me to cover the day’s matches, but left my personal 5D Mark3 camera, which was a back-up, in the car itself. I also left behind a wide angle lens that belonged to the office,” said the 30-year-old Indian.

However, he was in for a rude shock when he returned to the car late evening. “I was inside the stadium from 11.30am to around 10.30pm for the photo shoots. But when I got back to the car and opened the back door to put my stuff in, I found the window on the other side shattered. There was broken glass all over. I immediately looked down at the seat where I had left the camera and wide angle lens. They were both gone,” he recalled.

The photographer said he immediately contacted the police to file a complaint. While investigations are underway, he said he had intriguingly found an advertisement for the sale of a similar camera on an online forum the next day.

The photographer alleged: “It looked like the advertisement was for the same camera. Significantly, the ad was pulled down in a few hours. It was posted again the next day and removed later. The suspicious activity led me to believe that this could be my camera. So I duly informed the Rashidiya Police Station where I had filed my complaint.”

He said the camera and the lens cost over Dh20,000.

An immediate comment was not available from the police.