According to Celebrity Babylon, those wacky “knife play” photos of Lindsay Lohan and Vanessa Minnillo were stolen by the paparazzi out of Lindsay’s car.

Lindsay was reportedly having lunch at the Ivy when some ass nicked her camera out of the back of her Mercedes. Because he was a gentleman, he quickly downloaded the photos, and put the camera back into her car.

“Those photos were stolen by a paparazzi when Lindsay went to The Ivy for lunch,” says our snitch, who worked, until very recently, for the agency distributing and profiting from the stolen photos, X17. The insider tells Celebrity Babylon EXCLUSIVELY, “[The photog] waited until the valet parked her car [the infamous Mercedes convertible] and then reached inside, took her camera that was just laying on the seat, downloaded the photos on to his laptop hard drive, and put the camera back. By the time the valet brought Lindsay’s car around, everything was just the way it was when she got out, and she had no clue what had happened.” With all of the controversy going around Lindsay’s trip back to rehab, her friends and family selling her out, it was the perfect time to release the shocking and old photos into the marketplace. “She has so many troubles, what’s she going to do, sue? It’s like kicking someone when they’re down — way down.”

Well, thank God I’m not a celebrity: all of my knife play photos are safely tucked away in the backseat of my car too, and I would hate if they were made public.