It was supposed to be a perfect wedding day for Bryan Ball and his fiancé Julie Wilson, but it was ruined when moments after the couple said their vows it appears someone stole the photography equipment used to capture the special day.
Wilson and Ball had their wedding at Ferguson Point in Stanley Park last Sunday and were surrounded by family and friends when their photographer noticed his equipment was missing.
“It kind of made everybody get frantic, and we started looking around and could not find it. And then we realized that someone stole it,” says Ball.
Ball says they had two separate cameras filming the event and when they went back to check the tape, they realized they got the suspect on camera.
“It turns out that we did end up getting this guy walking around quite a few times, for probably 20 to 30 minutes, waiting for the right opportunity to sneak in and then sure enough on the video — I see him walk in, bend over, pick up the camera equipment and just walk off as soon as nobody is looking,” says Ball.
He says the man appeared very comfortable.
“When you are looking at the video, you can actually see him walking up and kind of talking to people…It looks like he is on the phone and taking pictures of the wedding. A lot of people were doing that. On your wedding day when you are getting married, you are not really paying attention to who is taking pictures and who is around you.”
Ball thinks he knew what he was doing and waited for the right moment.
“To realize that I actually got his face and I got a close-up picture of him walking literally 15 feet away from me and my wife and where the actual vows were happening and then to see him walk back and walk straight into the crowd, it was an appalling thought. I could not believe that somebody had the gall to come up and do this to somebody on such a special day.”
Their photographer is out at least $6,000 worth of equipment, and it is affecting his business.
His rental car and house keys were also taken.
“I thought he was just a tourist, he was well dressed, he had a camera,” said Martin Gregorian from Butterfly Photography. “I just thought he was enjoying the couple getting married.”
The man even took pictures of the wedding.
“He still took pictures of us with what he had for camera equipment even though in his mind he was going crazy about whether or not he was going to get it fixed or how he is going to tell other people. It is a pretty stressful moment, that’s for sure,” says Ball.
The couple hopes someone will recognize the man, and he gets what he deserves.
“It is the whole idea that someone can be this careless to ruin something that special for somebody and just the thoughtlessness of it. It is sickening that people can do this to people on such a great day.”
Vancouver Police say it remains to be seen if the man in the video is the one that took the equipment, but he clearly knew what he was doing.
“He’s most likely a professional,” said Cst. Brian Montague with the Vancouver Police.
Comments