West Kelowna photographer recovers gear stolen night she brought her newborn home

A new mother and photographer from West Kelowna has managed to recover most of the precious items stolen from her night she arrived home from the hospital with her newborn.

“I never thought I would see these again, that’s for sure,” said Sydney Kabatoff, who’s bag of valuables was stolen on Dec. 5.

At around 10 p.m. that night, her camera bag was forgotten about while her partner was unloading cargo. It was left outside and gone in the morning.

In addition to camera gear that cost between $3,000 and $4,000, the bag also contained a special necklace in memory of her late mother.

While searching local classifieds Wednesday, Jan. 5, Kabatoff found one of her camera lenses for sale.

"It looked remarkably like the primary lens I use,” she said. “Even had the mismatched lens cap like mine.”

The seller turned out to live right across the hall from her.

READ MORE: Recovery of stolen vehicles from Alberta lead Kelowna RCMP to thief

She said the RCMP were notified in December when the camera was stolen, then again yesterday when she stumbled on the lens for sale online.

“The police weren’t fast enough so another neighbour of mine actually went and confronted them in a kind manner,” Kabatoff said. “She was like, ‘I don’t want to let this get away from you so I’ll talk to them myself.’”

The person trying to sell her lens was co-operative and forfeited the item to her neighbour, along with the camera bag, which had the sentimental necklace inside.

“I’m very non-confrontational so I wouldn’t have done it myself," Kabatoff said.

READ MORE: Decades worth of work stolen from artist's home in Osoyoos

The seller told the neighbour that her valuables were acquired in a trade for an iPad, and admitted that drugs were involved. The seller also claimed to have pawned the rest of her gear in Kelowna on Christmas Eve and gave them the name of the pawn shop.

“Whether that story is true or not I don’t know but they were co-operative and gave us all the information we need to get everything else back so I’m not going to pursue them unless we can’t get everything back.”

Kabatoff said about half of the total monetary value was recovered and that the items returned so far are the most important. After phoning the pawn shop today, she learned the body of the camera and one lens are there. Two of the four lenses are still missing.

"It’s such a relief to even have the one lens and the necklace back," she said. "Both of them are sentimentally-valuable to me, for I share memories with a late loved one about both of them. It wasn’t just a financial loss for me, it was a loss of a memory, and the symbol of the work I put into purchasing the gear – it was the first big camera purchase I made."

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