While a reporter talked about the rising crime at a Southern Australian shopping mall, he and his crew suffered a robbery. Hayden Nelson, of local outlet Sunrise, revealed that lightning equipment was robbed just as they were recording a live report.
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As reported by PEOPLE, Nelson was reporting on the surge of crime taking place at Rundle Mall in Adelaide. On Sunday, March 2, however, he was the victim of the very same crime that he was reporting. He and his crew were left light-less by an unidentified suspect.
"This morning during our last live cross ... someone came and took the light off our light stand," Nelson said. "They just pulled that blatantly off and walked away with it. So any cause for security, any need for police was certainly made clear for us this morning."
Live Robbery
As reported by ABC Adelaide, the robbery took place at around 5:30 a.m. At such an early hour, a garbage truck pulled up to Hayden Nelson and his cameramen. They were setting everything up for the segment they were meant to record.
"We were on-air live and the lights are blaring in our face, we were both focused on a live cross of course," Nelson added. "Between us and the garbage truck, someone's just come along and stolen the light off the lights stand."
The cameraman would then report the robbery to the police. The only piece of information reported is that the man who pulled off the lightning equipment robbery was wearing an "orange beanie."
"We've been reporting on the crime issues here this morning so we knew there was going to be [a] possibility ... anything can sort of happen when you're on-air," Nelson said. "[But] you don't expect this, brazenly stealing your equipment."
One notable example of a journalist being robbed live on air happened back in 2022 the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. During a pre-game broadcast, Argentinian TV reporter Dominique Metzger was robbed in Doha. According to The Mirror, several items of her handbag were stolen. Metzger was then shocked after the authorities' response, as they asked her to pick a punishment for the suspect. She only wished to get her items back.
