I got some stuff back

Some of the camera equipment on the floor of the pawn shop.

Palmetto Pawn on Rivers Avenue in North Charleston. They buy gold! And my stolen camera equipment. (And here's an update: I must thank them for doing so!)

 Thank God for stupid criminals.

A detective called me last month and said a man had sold some of my and my employer's camera equipment to a North Charleston pawn shop.

He got a whopping $300 for nearly $10,000 worth of photographic tools.

Fortunately, the police were on the ball and monitoring inventory lists that pawn shops are required to turn over. Investigators matched up the serial numbers of my missing equipment.

I got it back; the pawn shop was out $300.

Unfortunately, some things -- some important things -- remain missing.

Among the missing items are my two most expensive lenses, a 105mm Nikkor macro I've used to shoot insects and a 150-500mm Sigma I've snapped wildlife with.

My Manfrotto tripod is still out there, too, so my nighttime lightning-chasing adventures are still on hold.

The only damage was to the shotgun mic on my Canon video camera. It was broken off, likely because the thief had never touched one in his life and had no clue how to remove it.

But I must be thankful for what I've got: real cameras. I hated having nothing.

The man (suspected of being) responsible is another story.

The suspect.

For this 24-year-old from North Charleston, it wasn't his first rodeo.

(Note: I'm omitting his name from this post on the off chance that he Googles himself. He hasn't been arrested -- yet. You can find his name in some of the following links, though.)

He has a lengthy criminal history.

He was in the news in 2008, when officials at Charleston County's jail accidentally released him. He was facing burglary, weapons and drug charges at the time of that snafu.

He again made headlines last fall, when he bailed from a stolen SUV and ran from the police. In the stolen vehicle, officers found a toddler holding a pellet pistol and saying "gun, gun."

His most recent conviction was in 2010, for burglary. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. All 10, of course, were suspended, and he was given three years of probation in lieu of hard time.

So, when someone broke into my vehicle, he was on probation for burglary. Go figure.

Last I checked, detectives in North Charleston likely will arrest him on a charge of selling stolen property. The burglary occurred in the separate city of Charleston, where a detective was less certain about charging him.

A chance still exists that he has my other stuff or that it'll show up elsewhere, but I won't get my hopes up.

Though if any of the stupidity he has exhibited in the past is an indicator, it's not entirely out of the question.

Update since I wrote this: He was arrested in late June in Berkeley County on unrelated burglary and larceny charges, then released from jail on bail.