Subject-Verb agreement - was/were

I'm not an ESL student, but I write blurbs about crime for a website as part of my job, and I'm questioning something I was corrected on, because it still looks wrong to me. If the wording of the blurb seems a bit odd, it's because we have to follow a certain format when we write these that doesn't flow as nicely as if we were left to our own creativity. My question isn't about the format, however - it's about the was/were (shown in bold below). I should know the answer to this question and thought I did, but my boss has me doubting myself. Here's the blurb in full.

A resident of Bob Avenue reports that on July 31, 2011 between 1615 hours and 1630 hours, a digital camera, a camcorder and a quantity of cash was removed from a backpack in the area of Anywhere Avenue and Middle Street.

In the above example, should it be 'was removed' or 'were removed'? Also, would the answer change if the items were worded as such?

...a digital camera, a camcorder and cash was removed from a backpack in the area of Anywhere Avenue and Middle Street.

Your comments/answers are greatly appreciated, even if I happen to be wrong