Caught in the Frame

When a man in his mid-40s showed up at Wan Chai-based TV production house APV on June 29 to rent a vast amount of camera equipment, there was no reason to suspect that APV was soon going to be the subject of an elaborate and expensive con. After all, the 14-year-old production house deals with visiting crews all the time.They even supplied 16 different groups from around the world during Sars. But little did they know that, but a few days later, they’d lose an estimated $US250,000 in equipment and be forced to go to on a worldwide internet manhunt, using the video website YouTube, in hopes of catching the thieves.

At first, there was no reason for APV to be alarmed. “For two weeks, we had an email exchange as they tried to figure out what high-end gear they wanted,” says APV managing director Christopher Slaughter. “The man paid in advance, as per stipulation. He paid in cash, which isn’t unusual. They signed a contract, and got all the gear sorted. Then we delivered it to their hotel room a few days later when they wanted to begin shooting. Our understanding was that this guy was coming here ahead of time and that the crew was coming later. Again, this is nothing unusual.”

Nothing seemed unusual about the crew either. The man claimed to be part of a group of six who were to film a two-day video of the city. Yet the APV camera assistants who escorted them while they shot their supposed tourism video (at such locations as The Peak and the Star Ferry) never saw six people. They saw only two men, Alvares Ferreira (the director) and Khao Koezel (the cameraman), and were contacted by a third, named Roberto Fernandez (the supposed commercial director). However, nobody was alarmed about not seeing the rest of the team either. It’s standard for some members of a television crew to go “scouting” for locations. It was only in retrospect that one APV member recalled a rebuff that he was “asking too many questions.”

The scam began to unfold after the final day of shooting. The crew would return to the Novotel Century Hotel in Wan Chai with the equipment at the end of the day. “We dropped them off at their hotel on Tuesday night with an appointment to pick them up at 11am the next morning. Our guys got there at 11am and they didn’t show up,” says Slaughter. “Their English wasn’t very good. They spoke Portuguese and we don’t have a Portuguese speaker on staff. We figured that it had been some miscommunication and our appointment must have been at 2pm, not 11am.” When 2pm came and went, hotel staff and the police were contacted. Yet Chester Wang, a marketing executive at Salon Films HK, claims this is where the company made their biggest mistake. “At the end of the last day’s shoot, the caretaker did not bring the cameras back. Aside from that, if it’s a new customer we require a reference from someone we know, and a business registration certificate.”

Among the items taken were three expensive digital beta-cameras, a portable digital player and recorder, wireless microphones, filters and various other pieces. Bulkier items including light stands and tripods were left behind. APV reps found the room investigation frustrating. “Although a housemaid can go into the room, clean it and check on the mini-bar, if you say I think that the people staying in this room have stolen equipment of mine, they then say to you, ‘Oh we have no authority to go into that room,” claims APV company director Mark Erder. Winston Chau, head of security at the Novotel Century, denies this. “After the incident we provided the police with CCTV recordings and the guest details. We don’t have the authority to do the investigation ourselves.” At that time, police informed both the hotel and APV that the Portuguese passports the men used were, in fact, fake.

The YouTube Connection

With no leads, employees at APV put together a short video clip of video images of the group they had captured while filming and put it on YouTube.com, the internet’s biggest video content provider. “YouTube is fantastic for these short videos,” claims Slaughter. “[As of press time], we had 12,300 hits. That’s 12,000 people who we have never met before.” At least 10 responses claimed the men weren’t Portuguese but were actually Brazilian. This was gleaned from evidence that on the man’s business card, the Portuguese word “director” is actually spelled without a “c,” which is commonly done in Brazil. Another indication was the man’s T-shirt, which said “Hands Off.” According to YouTube viewers, “Hands Off” is a common brand in Brazil. The host of the men’s website is also Brazilian. This prompted the company to contact the Brazilian consulate. “They contacted us, saying that the robbers were Brazilian,” says Edson Lyra, a trade officer with the consulate. “They let two guys walk into their offices and walk off with expensive equipment. Based on this guy’s T-shirt, they are claiming he is Brazilian. What kind of joke is that?”