TV reporter gets robbed live on TV while doing report about rise in crime rate

While there's never really a good time to become a victim of a crime, it is quite helpful for it to happen at a time when you're getting video evidence, and even better if that footage will end up on TV.

That's what happened to Australian TV reporter Hayden Nelson, who'd been standing on the streets of Adelaide delivering a piece to camera about rising crime rates when he realised he'd become part of that statistic.

He'd been on the Australian show Sunrise when someone came up to him at about 5am local time on Monday (March 3) to have a chat, only to scarper off with some filming equipment.

The reporter had been standing outside a spot called Rundle Mall, and after the man who'd come to talk to him left, Nelson realised he'd stolen one of their lights.

When the studio next cut to him, he held up the stand, which was now missing a light so everyone could see the empty space where it should have been.

There's supposed to be a light on this lightstand, but someone nicked it (Sunrise)

"To give you an idea about just how brazen some of the crime is, this morning during our last live cross about half an hour ago someone came and took the light off our light stand," Nelson explained to his viewers.

"Normally we have about three lights here, they've just pulled that blatantly off and walked away with it.

"So any cause for security, any need for police certainly made clear for us this morning."

Back in the studio, they blamed it on their rivals at Channel 9, while Nelson later told 7News how someone was able to rob part of the filming equipment.

He said: "When you’re about to go live, you’ve got an earpiece in with your director talking to you, and the sound of the presenters, you’ve got lights blaring at you.

Police have released a picture of the suspect (South Australia Police)

"It was dark, it was in Rundle Mall and ironically we were reporting on crime issues in Rundle Mall."

Fortunately, it sounds like this case of daylight robbery won't get the thief very far, as the TV presenter explained that the light will be 'impossible for them to use'.

He said: "For someone to be opportunistic and taking our equipment, they probably don’t even know what it is used for and how much it’s worth.

“It would be impossible for them to use, as the light itself needs a battery, which is a broadcast-quality battery which you can only get in the industry, and then you need the charger for it."

Police have released a photo of a suspect who may be the light-fingered robber, and it seems as though they think a chap in an orange hat did it.