A Korean tourist who spent a month in Canada checking out natural wonders from Banff to Yellowknife is telling a pickpocket he can keep her expensive camera – but she’d like her photographs back.
The woman and a female friend had just finished a month of touring around Western Canada and were having lunch at the Lonsdale Quay food court in North Vancouver April 2 when her V20 Leica camera was swiped.
The camera had been in a travel bag hanging on the back of a chair, but disappeared during the course of the meal. “It would be the equivalent of being pickpocketed,” said Corp. Richard De Jong, spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP.
But De Jong said it isn’t the loss of the camera itself that’s most upsetting to the victim – it’s the loss of her memories captured in more than 2,100 photos on the camera’s electronic memory card.
The North Vancouver RCMP are investigating the theft and are advising the person responsible or anyone with information about the camera that they can anonymously drop the memory card off at the North Vancouver RCMP Detachment – no questions asked.
“We’re respecting the wishes of the victim,” said De Jong.
De Jong said while unusual, it has happened before that thieves with a conscience realize they are in possession of something that has very little financial value to them but likely has large sentimental value to the victim – and find a way to return it.
De Jong said while the tourist has now returned to Korea, the police are in contact with a local friend, who could get the memory card back to her if it was to make a reappearance.
