The Slow Arm of the Law

I met with Detective Deckard at the photo store yesterday.  Before we looked at the cameras, I described to him all the little quirky details about them that only the owner would know like which cameras had loose winders or  a +1.5 diopters.  There was no doubt when I was finished that the cameras were mine.  Then I had to write it all out for him.  Meanwhile, the store owner's son who had bought the cameras from the crooks was filling out massive amounts of paperwork.  He had downloaded the video footage.  

It's not footage, is it?  Files.  It's not really a file, either, but I guess that is what people say.  

He had a drive with the video files and the stills on it.  He gave it to the detective.  

There you go. 

But the kid was thinking.  He had written the thieves a check.  Could they trace that?  He knew where it had been cashed.  He and the detective were on the other end of the room from me, and they were speaking in low voices, so I couldn't hear what all he was saying about a pawn shop.  But I did hear Deckard say, "That's good. . . yea. . . I didn't think of that."  

Of course.  

The kid asked me if I had any downloaded files from the cameras.  Sure I did.  He said that some cameras recorded their serial numbers in the metadata.  Huh.  I had no idea.  The kid was good.  

When we finished up the paperwork, we went downstairs to the register.  I was going to buy back my four Leica cameras and lenses.  Cha-ching!  $6,080.00 to get back my stolen goods.  

"You are a real Good Samaritan," I told the kid.  Then I turned to Deckard and said, "but I'm not happy.  What happens now."

Remember, we have photo i.d.s for both crooks, photographs, video, cashed checks, AND thumbprints.  The kid even remember where the girl said she worked.

And this is what Decakard said. 

"I will take this to my supervisor and see if he will O.K. a warrant.  If he does, then I can arrest these two.  If he doesn't, I will send it to the State Prosecutor's office, and they will handle it from there.  It will take awhile to run the prints.  This won't happen quickly."

Are you ready?  Ready for this?

"It will probably take a couple months."

And that's IF his supervisor wants to pursue the warrant.  

"You should get some computers," I said. 

"We have them."

"Really?  Are you using AOL and a dial up modem?  Two months?!"

I'm going to become a thief.  WTF?  Those crackheads will have hit the road long before then.  How can the prisons be so full?  How do these donut eaters ever arrest anyone? 

Oh, yea. . . traffic stops.  

So, camera rich and money poor, I will wait for "news." 

Meanwhile, I have to figure out what to do about selling off some of this stuff.  Q said I need to give him one.  He texted me that he had an IMBD page now.  I looked it up.  He is listed as a "star" in a film.  

"Huh," I wrote.  "I heard 'stars' have lots of money."

I guess I should not have sent him this phone pic.  I shouldn't post this, really.  My fruit bowl is embarrassing.  

So is the number of Leicas.  It seems I should be able to take a photograph, doesn't it?  Don't worry.  I'll be selling a lot of this.  And remember, this has been collected over time.  It is a cumulative collection.  

In other news, I appealed YouTube's decision to ban my home movie.  I wrote a long essay in response.  Their reply was much shorter.  

"Nope."

So, unless I can find someplace online to post little baby C.S. in diapers holding a shotgun, you will never get the viewing thrill you so deserve.  

Today's video is the year following the one I posted yesterday.  It looks much like the same film, though, with different outfits.  No, maybe this one is the year prior.  No matter.  Same theme, but this time with family.  There's my uncle married to my mother's sister.  He was a pilot in WWII.  His plane was shot down and he was captured by the Nazis.  He was put into a prison camp, but, unbelievably, he escaped.  He was helped by a farm family and was able to make it back to an American military site.  It is an unbelievable tale, and you would never know this in meeting him.  He didn't seem like that sort of guy at all.  

And there is my poor, crippled grandmother and my big, fat grandpa.  He's the one doing something weird with the palm branch at the end of the film.  And there are my cousins, the little boy and the girl who almost runs out in front of the moving car.  And there's my dad and my lovely mother.  I'm the skinhead with the toy gun.  

Holy smokes, there are only two shopping days left until Christmas.  Just a weekend.  I'll need to get some things for my mother no matter what I have said.  She is the only person, though.  That and I have a Cohiba for Travis.  I need to get some Moon Drops to C.C., too.  Oh. . . and a Leica for Q.  Yes, I'd better get busy.  I'm sure the stores will be crowded today.