[Leica] Trashed SL

[S Dimitrov <sld@earthlink.net>]

I was covering a labor dispute at the time. While the workers were
gathering at a park I decided to wait on the sidewalk in front of the
factory. They were due to picket at any time. The owner came out with
his family and started in on what I was doing. At the same time he was
crowding me with his chest, a cop thing as he was a retired reserve
captain with the LA sheriff's dept. When I raised my camera to my chest,
and asking if he wouldn't mind being photographed he went ballistic. In
his attempt to snatch the camera and his groping at me I fell down on
the SL, the impact completely collapsed the prism housing and warped the
lens mount. That part didn't bother so much but when he went to his
cedilla and came back with a black jack I knew that the s---- was
getting a little too deep. I called the sheriff and did a citizen's
arrest, sued him and won. Since the SL was a total loss I replaced it
with a R6, which doesn't compare with an SL.  The SL I left with Rudy
Ling as I didn't need the paper weight. Besides the SL is too thin to
use as a tire block, unlike my Rollei SLX body which does just fine to
keep my car from rolling while jacked on one side.

Slobodan Dimitrov