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> Much safer to just gather information and give it to the police.

The police won't help you recover your stolen property: it's not their job.

> Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous...there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun.

Every day walking around a city involves a non-zero chance of a fight. Every day interacting with other humans in civilization can involve a knife or a gun. Meeting someone who opportunistically boosted your DSLR at a house party isn't significantly more dangerous than meeting any Craigslist seller in any public place. In fact, it's probably less dangerous, because you won't be walking up to someone you don't know with hundreds of cash dollars in your pocket.

It's not even a complicated meeting. You take a friend, for safety, as many craigslist buyers do. You ask to see the camera, as any craigslist buyer would. You ask to take a few sample pictures to make sure it works, as any Craigslist buyer would. You snap a picture of the perpetrator and tell him (politely, because you don't want to fight) that this is your camera and you're going to keep it; if he disagrees, he's welcome to accompany you to the police station to sort things out. The vast majority of opportunistic thieves at this point will completely bug out since they know they're busted and they don't want to go to jail (there are few DSLR/lens combinations that don't qualify as felony larceny in most states).

I find your vision of a world in which opportunistic thieves pack heat and victims "just gather information and give it to the police" unrealistic, not to mention depressing.

This model of the world is optimal in the majority of cases, but when it fails, it fails very badly.

So is driving on the highway. What, exactly, is your point?

We take calculated risks every single day. Meeting an opportunistic thief in a public place to retrieve your own property is at the low of end the risk spectrum, and the savings is a lot more than a slightly faster commute to work.

A thief is MUCH more likely than a random person to be 1) impulsive 2) stupid 3) violent.

It's a calculated risk. I also don't drive on New Years Day at 3am due to the drunks (or, really, late at night on Sunday morning in some areas). I prioritize my personal safety highest, followed by protection from liability, followed by my property. I've seen confrontations over similar things turn into stabbings or shootings. In Oakland, we had a fun game of "armed restaurant takeover" last year, where kids would enter a restaurant or coffeeshop, grab all the laptops/phones, and in a few cases, shoot people.

The police in most non-dysfunctional places are fairly willing to make arrests if you hand them a totally packaged case for grand theft. What they hate is work which screws up their stats (reported crimes which they can't/won't solve).

The police won't help you recover your stolen property: it's not their job.

That very much depends on the department, the particular officer, and how you present your case.

I had a cop in the very high-crime town I was living in take my statement about having seen my stolen bike ridden by someone and then go looking for that person and find him.

Like you said, he didn't have to do that, but he was probably not busy and I had previously reported it stolen. Didn't hurt that he was coincidentally the same one who had come to my apt when I reported the bike (and other stuff) stolen.

What I'm getting at is that you shouldn't assume the police won't help. You have nothing to lose by asking them.

> Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous (if the police weren't there); there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun.

one of those moments I'm glad I don't live in the US. a thief with a gun? that reminds me when I recently was showing part of my city to an American couchsurfer, we took him for a walk around a lower class neighborhood to show him something other than common tourist attractions, and when we were passing by some average young scamps around liquor stores, he asked if they are armed. I laughed.

It depends on what pictures were on the memory card too. If you have renters/home owners insurance thefts would likely be covered. Luckily for me they were. The cost and time of replacing gear sucks, but life goes on. However, photos…those are HARD to get back. I lost 1,000 photos from a trip to Amsterdam the day after I got back. That sucks more than anything… Agreed, however, that I would never confront a seller alone in person!

I take it you don't listen to rap music?

If you did, I think you'd have a different viewpoint as a G.

Some rap music gives good legal advice (Jay-Z's "99 Problems" is about 95% accurate, it just oversteps the rights argument in a few places). A lot gives really bad advice. I'm a lot closer to George Tenet with the rented Maybach without tints or rims, spending money on businesses rather than 80 gold chains :)

I knew a woman who did white-collar criminal defense at one of San Francisco's most high-profile law firms. She heard "99 Problems" and thought "actually, those are very sound tactics."

I did an analysis of it on Quora http://qr.ae/TcyFx and a law professor did a far better job: http://slu.edu/Documents/law/Law%20Journal/Archives/LJ56-2_M...

There's also the Rap Genius analysis: http://rapgenius.com/Jay-z-99-problems-lyrics#note-17560

(IANAL, of course, nor am I a rap musician or interstate cocaine trafficker)

I have a buddy who is a Georgetown Law student. He is a huge Jay-Z fan and told me that one of his professors used this song as an example in one of his classes. Jay-Z seems to have a pretty good head on his shoulders. I guess that's what happens selling crack on the streets in New York. He didn't end up shot, in jail or dead, so he obviously did something right.

Lol, "clique" reference.