Much Needed Karma

I don’t know why I was checking out this site, perhaps because I had just returned from vacation. I always worry about having any or all of my electronics stolen or misplaced. Okay, I worry about them getting stolen, because when I am carrying anything electronic that I have paid good money for I don’t put it down. Period!

 

There are a few sites for locating lost and stolen electronics, and for reporting found cameras, and they are all probably quite good. I would suggest that if you lose a camera or find a camera, it would be a good idea to contact all of these sites. Who knows, your thief might just have a heart of gold. He is a proper wanker of course, but there may be a glimmer of nice buried deep down somewhere, beneath his black heart. I will list the sites at the end if I manage to remember by the time I finish.

One or all of the sites have all of the photos up and the idea is that if you see your picture or that of a friend you can get the pics back at the very least. I wonder how hard it is to prove to the finder that it is your camera. Sure, you could send a photo of yourself to verify who you are, but with judicious use of Photoshop, some thief could take one of the pictures, put his head on someone in the background and steal the stolen camera. Hey, I may have hit upon a little cottage industry here. It is well known that do gooders (like the ones sponsoring these sites) are trusting souls and tend to believe that people are good at heart. That means they are soft touches for a good con man. Just sayin’  

This map of the world with the lost, stolen and found cameras is mind boggling; by the number of flags indicating where in the world they have been located. I guess there is nothing surprising about how many cameras are lost and stolen throughout the world, but what is surprising is where there are no cameras stolen. The central African countries of Chad, Libya, Algeria, Niger, Mali the Sudan and even Somalia have almost no missing cameras. I have heard that these are some of the most dangerous and deadly countries in the world. I guess not if you are a photographer. They may not be very good with the whole human rights thing, but for electronic rights, they seem to be leading the world.

Mongolia is another country where cameras are pretty safe. I guess Genghis Khan’s descendants are comfortable with herding goats and riding horses.

 

Louise just mentioned that another thought might be that since some of these countries are so dangerous then maybe people and their cameras just don’t go there. I guess that’s possible…

You should check these sites out or at least keep them in mind, just in case. Also, if you have some time to kill, it is kind of cool looking at other peoples vacations and not having to listen to them drone on and on about each and every picture. Have fun!

www.stolencamerafinder.com

www.cameratrace.com/

www.camerafound.com/

www.ifoundyourcamera.net/

I am sure there are other very good sites, but you can look for yourselves. If you happen to lose your camera or your cell phone, check the lost and found in your local paper or even sites like Craigslist for your city. There are very nice people in the world and if nothing else, returning a camera will make them feel good and build up some much needed Karma.