Stolen photo equipment from Gazette office anonymously returned

Chris Parent’s found photo gear laid on the SUB front desk. (Photo by Ian Froese)

Nearly all of the $12,000 in camera equipment stolen from The Dalhousie Gazette office almost three weeks ago was anonymously returned today.

The shipment, which was addressed to the equipment’s owner Chris Parent, arrived at the Student Union Building (SUB) this morning. It was shipped using Canada Post.

Parent was informed of the mysterious package’s arrival after 3 p.m. today by phone. He asked for the box to be opened and he quickly confirmed the equipment as his own.

“It’s almost like an early Christmas present,” said Parent from his family home in Saint John, N.B., “a very expensive Christmas present.”

There was no return address on the box or any indication of where it was sent from.

Although the camera body, lenses and other accessories were in the box, not everything was returned. His camera bag, flash, two transceivers and three memory cards were not in the package. The lost items are valued at nearly $1,000.

Parent said he doesn’t know whether the person who stole his equipment is the same individual who returned it, but he’s grateful either way.

“I don’t care who stole it now. Why would I? I got it back,” he said.

The gear was poached sometime between the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 20 and the morning of Thursday, Nov. 21 from the Gazette‘s locked office in the third floor of the SUB.

Parent is in his second year as the Gazette’s photo manager. He’s also an upper-year neuroscience student.

Parent reached out to his Facebook friends the morning he discovered his gear was swiped. His initial status on Nov. 21 was shared by over 2,600 people.

“Those who know me, know that I literally had everything taken from me this morning,” he wrote later that day.