Car prowlers steal photographer's past, present, and future

BREMERTON, Wash. — For Bremerton photographer Luke Wesson, capturing moments and memories with his camera is far more than a vocation.

"It's not just my work, this it's my life," said Wesson.

Last week, much of Wesson's life's work of photographs were stolen along with $15,000 in camera gear when car prowlers were able to get into his locked car without breaking his windows.

"I locked the doors, and I don't know what happened, but 20 minutes later when I came back, the car had been ransacked," Wesson said.

Inside the stolen gear bag were several hard drives containing irreplaceable work over eight years, and some recent work he was commissioned to do -- photographing generations of the same family.

"I couldn't reshoot that, so I had to give the money back," he said. “Other jobs all had to be refunded.”

Wesson put up a

page, exchanging custom photo shoots for donations so he could start over.

On Tuesday night, a Bremerton police detective called Wesson after his gear bag -- and a portion of the camera gear -- turned up at a local pawn shop after workers ran serial numbers of the photo gear into a database.

Police told Wesson what was found is now evidence in a major theft case so he may not get it back immediately, but Wesson was thrilled by the find.

"I don't know what to say. I'm still a little speechless that some of it's been returned," he said.

Wesson says his Apple MacBook and hard drives with hundreds of photos are still missing. Detectives are searching for the thieves and the hard drives, but Wesson was looking at the discovery as a blessing.

"My camera's there, so it's a start," he said, adding that the missing hard drives are the only thing in the bag worth nothing to the thieves and worth everything to him. He's hoping anyone with information about the missing drives will contact Bremerton police.

Cox Media Group