A Montreal filmmaker had his knapsack full of valuable gear snatched from under him in a café last Friday and has posted a video of it online. It was as Jesse Freeston was leaving that he realized his knapsack was gone along with a new laptop, a notebook full of his ideas, an agenda, phone and flash drives that were inside.
Freeston reported the theft to police and then asked the shop owner for the surveillance video. It shows a man who appears to be talking on a cellphone, with a newspaper in his hand, pick a backpack up off the floor and leave the coffee shop. Freeston put the video to music and posted it along with his email address and a request that the person who took his stuff contact him and remind him of his schedule.
‘Cybershame this guy’
Freeston doesn’t think he’ll ever get his belongings back but he says “at the very least, we’re going to cybershame this guy.”
Police don’t encourage people to post videos of alleged crimes online and say they should leave police work to the police.
That said, this kind of theft from restaurants and cafés is a common occurrence in Montreal and is not at the top of police priorities for investigation. There have been cases in Montreal where people have been able to use technology to locate their stolen iPhones but police have refused to help recover them.
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