Newlyweds hope reward helps them recover stolen wedding photos

BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON — Pennsylvania newlyweds are out their wedding pictures and a Utah-based photographer is missing his gear, after his truck was burglarized in the canyon.

Now, the couple is offering a $1,000 reward in hopes that their photos can still be recovered.

Photographer Sean Sullivan went fly-fishing in the canyon last week and was gone for just minutes. He said Friday the burglar or burglars broke through a window on the right side of his pickup and took his laptop, external drives, photography equipment and even his debit card.

Sullivan said he was more concerned about the wedding photos of Philadelphia couple Josh and Jennifer Smith, which were contained in the equipment. He was flown out to Pennsylvania specifically to snap the pictures.

“In 10 minutes somebody capitalized on that and they don’t even know what they have,” Sullivan said.

The Smiths are offering the reward in frustration because there are no leads. They had only received two of their wedding photos that were in post-production.

“I guess we’ve got the memories, but we don’t have the visuals — we don’t have photos of my wife with her mother and her father in her dress,” Josh Smith said from Philadelphia. “We could not have asked for a better day. No complications. You put in all this work. Everything goes perfect. The last possible thing that you would think is that your wedding photography would be stolen.”

Whoever broke into Sullivan’s truck didn’t waste any time. Sullivan said his debit card account shows large transactions at a nearby 7-Eleven and Chevron soon after the break-in. Three hours later, surveillance cameras captured photos of a man police say was using Sullivan’s debit card. It’s unclear if that man is the same person who broke into the truck.

“I’m extremely upset — both at the person who did this to me, but at myself for not having it quadruply backed up,” Sullivan said.

Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal offered a warning to drivers Friday to keep their valuables out of sight, if not out of their cars entirely. Cars left along roads in the canyons, Hoyal said, are common targets of burglars and the trend is on the rise.

“My hope is that we can get these pictures out there and this person can return the stolen goods,” Sullivan said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Unified police at 801-743-7000.