Stolen camera equipment being sold on Facebook - police won’t act. Help!
Hello everyone, I’d really appreciate any help or advice on this at all.
A few weeks ago, my husband had approximately £30k of camera equipment stolen from his car in Coventry. As we pretty much anticipated, the police did nothing other than log it.
Since then, we’ve identified a piece of his equipment - a lens - being sold by a guy in Coventry (England) on Facebook marketplace. We know it belongs to my husband, because the serial number is clearly visible in the listing. The lens was also attached to a very expensive camera when it was stolen, so whoever has the lens likely has the camera.
The police were given all the evidence, screenshots, links to the listing, etc.
We informed the police who took forever to act, but tonight did go to the guy’s address. They asked him about the lens, and he said he bought it online and produced a receipt.
The police said to us that he “bought it from a legitimate website and has proof of purchase” so they consider it to belong to him. He denied that he was selling it on Facebook marketplace, which the police accepted despite them having screenshots of, and links to, the actual listing, which is still up as we speak.
They also presented him with a list of the stolen items and asked him if he had any (instead of asking him if he had the camera, or searching for it) and he of course said no.
The police consider this to be case closed despite undeniable proof that this is stolen property. They won’t make any attempt to identify where it was bought from, or ask any further questions.
I want to know: what can we possibly do to force them to act? How can we escalate this? Who can I speak to?
I feel like going round and asking to view the lens myself and just taking it, but then I feel like WE’D get in trouble for stealing our own property back!