The Daily Telegraph:
Extraordinary footage has emerged of the sophisticated sting that saw photographer Brett Costello robbed on the beach in Rio.
The brazen thieves stole a carry-on luggage case full of expensive equipment on the busy cafe district on Ipanema Beach in the middle of the day.
CCTV vision of the brazen theft at the Aussie coffee shop Kraft Cafe reveals Costello was targeted by a three-person gang of thieves, who look anything but opportunistic criminals.
I feel so bad for this photographer. He was obviously targeted by the team of thieves. It goes without saying to always keep an eye on your stuff when traveling and try to travel with a companion who can watch your gear when you get distracted. In a bizarre twist, he spotted his stolen photo vest on someone trying to enter the archery venue.
it’s probably not the end of the world for him, he’s a professional, he’ll be insured against this kind of thing. but the photos he shot will most likely be gone. unless he took the paranoid approach and did the backup before leaving the shooting location and gave a copy to his assistant or kept it on his body. but as he neither kept an eye nor his hand/foot on his equipment, he’s probably not the paranoid type (yet).
still, it sucks, going to the police, phoning the insurance company, getting new gear in an olympic city and having to reshoot the photos (or lose the money for the job).
Actually, “getting new gear” will be the easy part. Both Nikon and Canon have huge facilities for loaning gear to pro shooters.
Yeah, I’m curious what happened to his images. Most outlets would have a runner picking up his cards or have him shooting to a network server (everyone wants to run their images first), but the Olympics may not be time-sensitive enough to News Corp for that much overhead.
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another reason the Olympics are a sham. Brazil has brought irreparable harm to itself with this folly.