‘Hot’ gear on city’s streets
Purloined high-tech goods big sellers in Downtown Eastside
A man scraping a bar-coded identity tag off a laptop on the #4 Powell bus. A young woman chanting “iPod, iPhone” as she shuffles down Hastings Street near Columbia Street. Three young men offering up a white Samsung Galaxy in Pigeon Park.
Purloined high-tech goods continue to be a hot commodity on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
When Tammy Jones, a Vancouverbased Steadicam operator, discovered thousands of dollars worth of highly-specialized movie equipment had been stolen from her car outside her Kitsilano home Jan. 6, the poverty-stricken neighbourhood was one of the first places she went after alerting police.
Posters offering a reward for the gear, which has its serial numbers registered on international databases, are plastered in the area as Jones continues her search.
“What can you do?” asked the single mother, who had bought the gear for work. “It has no street value. No one on the street will be able to use it.”
Jones’ friend Michael Dewey helped her search for the gear in the Downtown Eastside, where he expected she might find it.
“It’s pretty much everything you could imagine,” Dewey said of the goods being sold on the street. “It’s much more than any department store.”
While Jones was a victim of auto theft, police said a lot of thieves also take advantage of people who simply aren’t keeping a close eye on their highly-valued electronics and other personal property.
This led the Vancouver Police Department to launch its “Who’s Watching It ... When You’re Not?” campaign last fall.
Sgt. Randy Fincham said that in 2014, police recorded 6,533 incidents of “theft other,” where thieves walked away with unguarded personal property, down from 6,830 in 2013. Police also deal with some 300 cellphone-specific robberies in Vancouver each year, he added.
Fincham said people should always record their equipment’s serial numbers, as Jones did, which helps police prove goods are stolen so they can seize them and arrest the seller.
Fincham also said people who think they’ve located stolen property should contact police before risking their safety by attempting to take it back themselves.