Robbed in Brazil

When my wife and myself arrived at the Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil we placed our bags on a cart, and I placed my computer back pack, containing a small netbook, all my photographs, and undeveloped film on the top of the stack. In all, I had about 20 rolls of 35mm with prints and another 35 or 40 exposed rolls, plus 20 rolls of exposed 645.

I turned my back for a second to pay the cab driver and a young man grabed the back pack and jumped on the back of a small Honda motorcycle disappearing in traffic with his partner and my Net Book, Photographs and Film. Two State Police Officers tried to give chase, in a car but traffic was too heavy. I knew better but when I let my guard down for just a second I paid the price.

I hope the members of Photography Review can learn from my mistake.

Sorry to hear it. It is sad at the great pictures that were lost and most likely just tossed out.

That's really too bad. I'm guessing they were expecting to get more then what they did.

That sucks! Insurance? Of course how do you replace a photo with money? Can't be done.

Sorry to hear about your experience. It probably happened to quick to react to but this is one time where a snapshot of the getaway from a cell phone might have come in handy, Jeff

I'm so sorry! That is terrible. The gear, of course, is replaceable. But photos can never be replaced. Unfortunately, thieves don't think or care about stuff like that. There's a lesson here about redundant backups. Although that won't work for film :(

My mom just lost her point-and-shoot, with memory card, traveling. As with your loss, the photos were more important than the camera. They were from her high school reunion. Maybe she'll get lucky and the camera will turn up.

so sorry to hear that

Thanks for the kind words, if I had the images on SD Cards in a different bag the loss would not have been a big deal. Please see my new post in the Help Files Forum.

Wow, really sorry to hear that. The first two words that popped into my head when I read the subject line were "Sao Paulo." Not the safest of places.

It's always the worst to lose precious photographs, never mind everything else that was taken. I feel for ya.

Sorry to hear about your loss. And it can happen anywhere. Though I like to think I minimize my risk by not travelling abroad. For those that like it, great, but I don't have much desire to leave the USA, even for a short while. For that matter, I don't care much for big cities here in the US.

Bummer, so sorry for your loss, not exactly a good way to end a holiday.
Hopefully, others will benefit from your unhappy experience !

Oh, that's terrible! I'm so sorry. It's something that I keep waiting to happen to me since I'm super careless. The fact that it hasn't happened yet just proves that when it does it's going to be decimating.

Sorry to hear of your loss. I can only feel for you for the loss of the pictures - not a pleasant experience. From your description of the event, it almost sounds like you were targeted by the thieves. I have heard of events like this before in Central and South American countries where potential thieves will follow a photographer or a group of photographers looking for an opportunity such as this. I don't mean to condemn these areas of the world, it is just that the stories I have heard have come from people travelling in those parts of the world.

Thanks for sharing this with us. Now, at least, we can learn from this. It will certainly make me more diligent in the future.

Regards,

WesternGuy.