Oslo police refused to retrieve stolen photography gear despite knowing its location

Oslo police declined to enter a municipal apartment building in the St. Hanshaugen district to recover stolen photography equipment worth over NOK 500,000, despite knowing its exact location, celebrity photographer Christian F. Wesenberg told Dagbladet.

Wesenberg tracked his stolen gear using GPS devices to a flat in the building, just meters from where he stood with two officers. The officers, he said, were willing to help but were told by their dispatch that they lacked legal authority to enter the premises without further approval.

“It’s incomprehensible,” Wesenberg said. “The tracking data proved my equipment was inside, yet they were denied permission to retrieve it.”

He reported the equipment was stolen after a window was smashed at his studio in Tollbugata, central Oslo, in a method similar to a later heist at Glassmagasinet, where a masked man broke a glass pane to steal goods.

Wesenberg also offered a NOK 1,000 reward for the return of his gear and attempted to speak with residents of the building. A week after the theft, following Dagbladet’s inquiry to police, an investigator contacted him—but by then, the GPS trackers had run out of power.

Though insured, Wesenberg criticized the financial burden on insurers and policyholders when police fail to act. “It’s madness that insurance companies must pay hundreds of thousands because police say they lack the authority to retrieve stolen property,” he said.

He had moved his studio from Hausmanns gate to Tollbugata near the Storting, believing it would be safer. Previously, a cargo bike worth NOK 149,000 was stolen from him during Easter.