'Stolen' Camera? One Guess What Was On It

There's a lesson to be learned with this tit-for-tat tale that apparently involved a little too much of the former.

A Rancho Santa Margarita man called the Orange County Sheriff's Department on Saturday to report a petty theft. According to the OCSD blotter, the man explained he had had a temporary tenant, a woman, who had paid some rent along with a deposit for her room.

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The landlord went on to explain he received a text message from the woman, who said she had taken some of the landlord's property and wouldn't give it back until he returned her deposit.

Basically, the "stolen" property was leverage.

And what a piece of leverage it was.

One of the items was a camera, and in a digital world without discretion, that memory card can only mean trouble—or embarrassment.

The man made a second call to the OCSD requesting to speak to a deputy. He wanted to inform the officer that the camera that had been taken "may have some inappropriate pictures on it."

A little more than two hours after the initial call, the exchange was made: The deposit for the camera and all that may have been in it—and a bit more.