new photo equipment for Jim Roach

Jim Roach, our favorite east bay photographer, has stolen hearts with his amazing wildlife photography around Oakland and Berkeley.

These days, when reports of robberies, theft and other crimes dominate the Oakland forums on Nextdoor.com, Jim’s amazing photos send a positive message to all community members and give joy to so many of us.

Where most neighborhood posts trigger no more than a couple of hundred reactions, Jim’s recent photos of a coyote and bobcat encounter triggered almost 3000 positive reactions.

This morning, however, Jim was robbed in Oakland and had to give up his very expensive photo equipment at gunpoint.

We, a community of his fans and followers on social media, our outraged by this crime, and saddened that Jim will not be able to practice his passion and share his talents for a while. Please help us raise enough money for him to be able to replace his equipment.

From his posts on Nextdoor, I determined that he lost a Canon EOS R5 camera body , a Canon RF100-500mm lens and a 2x extender, of which the new value is just short of $7500.

Update: I've been in touch with Jim. He is currently dealing with the ramifications of losing ID and credit cards, and getting a new phone, and he has been overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from the community, both here and on Nextdoor.

From me (Peter): thank you all so much for all the generous donations so far. I'm very hopeful we'll be able to compensate him for all his losses (which we don't know the total of yet, but likely exceeds the initial fundraising goal I set).