Lost camera reunited with owner after three years
A bagel shop, a purple door, and a street sign helped
reconnect a lost camera with its owner after three long years.
John Noerr uncovered a water-logged Canon XT digital
camera in a creek in upstate New York near his parents' home. The art educator
from Poultney, Vt., realized that the memory card of the camera amazingly still
worked, and with 581 photos, there could be enough information to track down
the owner.
According to the Post-Star, the supersleuth spent three
weeks combing through the photos looking for clues to the owner.
After plenty of dead ends, Noerr found two pictures he
called the holy grail. A woman sitting on a stoop in front of a purple door
with the street number 327, and a shot of a sign: Third Street.
A random snap of a bagel shop helped lead the 39-year-old
to conclude he was looking for someone in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.
Using Google Maps for street views, he located the address. Tax records gave
him a family name: Comeau.
A search on the Web led him to Twitter, where he sent a
message to a woman that he might have found her camera. She responded that she
hadn't lost a camera, but her brother had.
Noerr said, "There was a moment it could have
belonged to any number of 7 billion people. Then, there was a moment when it
belonged to just one."
That was one lucky Michael Comeau, who had dropped his
camera on a bridge three years back while on a camping trip and had long since
given up on ever recovering it.
The photos included long-forgotten images, even some of
now-deceased relatives. Comeau called the return of his camera "totally
bizarre," adding, "I can't wait to get it back."
Comments
Post a Comment