The people of Vancouver (Caveat Emptor)

How does one describe the people of a city?  A daunting task with no starting point. Let's describe them using my digital cameras ;-)
I got my first digital camera for free, because one of the attendees at one of Conrad's Work Less Parties lost the camera there and didn't bother to pick it up for over 2 months.  Another citizen of Vancouver was responsible for the repeated theft of my digital cameras, so I bought quite a few used on Craigslist.  One nice seller I met at a Starbucks on Main Street. He arrived late because he was using transit.  Not sure whether he was homeless or financially challenged, but he wore a nice big old long coat, was friendly in a friendly way, and sold me a nice Canon for $40, that worked flawlessly until it too was stolen. Others seemed a bit shifty, but since I usually got their phone numbers, I am quite confident that the cameras were at least not stolen (before I bought them ;-).  All the used cameras I bought worked flawlessly.

The cell camera at the CNY parade

I realized two days before this year's Chinese New Year Parade, that the latest incarnation of my line of cameras was not there anymore (It survived both Hawaii & Cuba), so at the last moment I started to peruse Craigslist. Everything seemed fine at the start, except that the person trying to sell a Sony Cybershot did not give me their phone number and did not send cell texts.  When I met them it was a chubby woman from New Westminster in the shiny blue Ford Mustang of her unwashed looking boyfriend. Money and camera exchanged hands.  Only when attempting to charge the camera at home, did I realize that the battery had given up and could no longer be charged. No big deal, eBay will provide me with a new battery for $5. And this seems quite a good example of what this city is turning in to: A giant maze for a glorious race of Rat against Rat.  Maybe these people thought that the buyer would miss his money. Not really, for minimum input I will have a working camera. The main annoyance was to have to use my cell phone camera again at the Chinese New Year Parade, despite having had the foresight to look for a real camera. But then I don't think these people will ever quite comprehend that. It can't be expressed as a Dollar figure. On the other hand: the cell phone camera did its job ;-)