EAST HARLEM — Eight professional camera lenses worth $144,000 were stolen from a parked truck on 125th Street, police said.
The collection of equipment, all of which were Leica Summicron lenses that cost $18,000 each, was stolen out of a white Ford was parked at 125th Street and Second Avenue at 9 p.m. Tuesday, according to the NYPD.
The stolen lenses were going to be used in an unidentified film shoot in New Jersey the next day, police said. When the van arrived to film set, the driver realized the lenses were gone, police said.
The van had been padlocked but the driver told police he couldn't remember if he had closed the front door, according to the NYPD.
The lenses are often used by professional filmmakers and are designed specifically for 35 mm film.
"They are very, very highly regarded for their design," said Rene Perez, who works at the Leica store in SoHo. "They have kind of become the standard of the industry for their optical quality and that is one of the reasons they are so valuable."
