crime

A popular camera store in the UK was targeted this week by burglars who made off with over $200,000 in Leica cameras and lenses.

It seems that burglars are increasingly targeting camera stores across the United States, going as far as to cut holes in buildings (or ramming holes with cars) in order to steal thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of equipment in a matter of minutes.

Cape Town is the most dangerous city in South Africa and one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Freelance photojournalist Leon Knipe follows the police to crime scenes and works to document as many murders as he can. The 5-minute video above by Shaun Swingler is about Knipe's life and work (warning: it contains graphic photos of horrific crime scenes).

You've heard of drunk driving, but what about drunk droning? That's what's on track to become a new crime in the state of New Jersey after lawmakers voted to approve the new bill.

UK police are turning to high-tech artificial intelligence to help wage war against the scourge of child pornography, but the system currently has a tricky problem: the AI has a hard time telling the difference between nudity and photos of deserts.

A photographer in San Francisco is offering a $1,000 cash reward with no questions asked for the return of stolen memory cards containing irreplaceable wedding photos. The cards were taken from her car a week ago by a thief who also made off with $15,000 in camera equipment.

If you're a photojournalist who covers stories in dangerous places, here's something you should know: don't try to bring bulletproof vests or gas masks through airports in Thailand, as they're considered "war weapons." At least two journalists (including one photographer) have found this out the hard way over the past two years.

The priceyness and portability of photo gear makes camera rental and retail outlets a popular target of burglars, and last week yet another big name in the industry was looted. The camera store Midwest Photo in Columbus, Ohio, was broken into on March 15th, and a huge number of items were stolen.

A Wolf Camera store in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia, was targeted by burglars who drove a truck through the front of the store in a smash-and-grab theft.

Drones are a source of beautiful pictures, captivating videos, and somewhat understandable anxiety, but a couple of teenagers vacationing in Washington recently turned theirs into a crime fighting tool.

Photographer Jason Lanier says he was doing a photo shoot at a park in Texas when a man drove his truck over his camera gear bag that contained tens of thousands of dollars in gear.

Clifton Cameras in the UK is asking for help this week after a CCTV surveillance camera caught two thieves stealing £4,000 (~$5,700) worth of Sony cameras and lenses from the company's camera store in Dursley, Gloucestershire.

The edited 1-minute video above shows one of the suspects handing a $2,000 Sony a7 II and 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 mirrorless camera kit to his accomplice, who then shoves it into his jacket.

Remember Melissa Click? She's the University of Missouri professor who sparked an outcry after being filmed confronting photojournalists and calling for "muscle" to remove them from a public area during an on-campus protest in November 2015.

Well, Click was charged with assault yesterday for her actions.

Back in July, we reported that 47-year-old William H. Merideth of Hillview, Kentucky, had gotten arrested for using a shotgun to shoot down a neighbor's drone that was flying over his property.

Merideth was just cleared of all charges after a judge ruled that the camera drone's flight was indeed an invasion of privacy.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced yesterday that it's proposing an unprecedented $1.9 million fine against Chicago-based SkyPan International, a company that shoots aerial photos and videos with camera drones. This is the largest civil penalty ever proposed against a drone operator for endangering airspace safety.

Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

Back in 2012, we shared a post about the life and work of Anton Kusters, a Belgian photographer who spent two years living among the members of a Japanese Yakuza family to document life in the criminal underworld.

Photography safety is a growing concern leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This past weekend, a group of photographers were mugged and had their expensive equipment stolen while covering a road cycling test event for next year's Games.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, pricey camera equipment is becoming one of the favorite targets of robbers. In 2013, the New York Times reported that photojournalists in Oakland were becoming the victims of camera robberies. Last month, photographers were robbed in broad daylight by assailants wielding pepper spray.

The San Francisco Police Department is now asking for the public's help in solving yet another DSLR robbery that occurred in the city last month.

On Monday, two professional photographers were robbed of their camera gear in broad daylight in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. The two suspects were reportedly armed with pepper spray, and they made off with equipment worth over $7,000.

French photographer Francois-Marie Banier has been sentenced to three years in jail after the courts found him guilty of taking advantage of France's richest woman while she had dementia, manipulating her into giving him cash and gifts worth an estimated €414 million (~$455 million).

Nick Marsh has been a forensic photographer for over two decades over the UK, and he offers his forensic imaging consulting services to the London MET police. He has even written a book about the subject, titled "Forensic Photography: A Practitioner's Guide."

As New York City prepares to digitize and publish thousands of historical crime scene photos captured by photo unit police officers, here's a look at the subject from the photojournalist's point of view.

The 9-minute above is an interview with Weegee, a photographer known for his gritty black-and-white photos of crime scenes and urban life. It's from the 1958 vinyl record "Famous Photographers Tell How."

Is this a case of sensible anti-terrorism measures or racial profiling and an inappropriate suspicion of photography? Police in New York are currently looking for two men of Middle Eastern descent who were spotted taking pictures in front of multiple Jewish synagogues in Brooklyn.

A 16-year-old Pittsburgh teenager has been arrested for murder after taking a selfie with the body and sending the photographic evidence of his crime to a friend through Snapchat.

If you'd like a long and fruitful career as a street photographer, Saudi Arabia might not be the most welcoming place for you to pursue it. Shooting public photos and sharing them online is becoming more and more popular in the Middle Eastern kingdom, but many practitioners are unaware that the country's strict cybercrime law could bring down huge fines and even jail time for their snapshots.

A North Carolina-based photographer had her camera bag stolen this past weekend. In addition to losing over $5,000 worth of camera gear, what was more devastating was the loss of photos she had taken for parents who lost their newborn baby shortly after he was born.

Thieves are reportedly using the iPod Nano as a spy camera for stealing PIN numbers from people using ATM machines. The device is small enough to remain relatively hidden and packs a camera that's good enough to spy on the keypad of ATMs as unsuspecting people punch in their PIN numbers.

Wedding photographers beware: you could be a prime target for robbers due to the value of your gear. Just last year we reported that photojournalists in California were being targeted for their equipment, and now another crazy incident has occurred: a wedding shoot in Oakland was targeted this weekend by robbers who made off with $13K+ in camera gear... and all the wedding photos.

After the Boston Marathon Bombings in April 2014, both law enforcement and the public turned to photos from bystanders and security cameras to find clues about the perpetrators.

Inspired by this concept of using social media photos to solve crime, game programmer Matt Rix decided to create a game called "Photobomb."

Rap mogul Suge Knight could be facing some serious jail time after stealing a photographer's camera. By "serious," we mean up to 30 years.

Sure, Instagram has provided some folks with a ready-made market for selling illegal items or doing unsavory things, but the photo sharing services has also expanded the boundaries of how incompetent a crook can be.