When a firefighter from British Columbia dropped his new Canon digital camera into the Pacific Ocean more than a year ago, he probably thought that was the last of it. After all, no one is going to find a camera on the ocean floor, much less return it.
A diver of course. Markus Thompson of Vancouver, B.C., was apparently competing a biological survey when he found the camera off the wharf in Deep Bay BC, he wrote Nov. 24 on his his Google+ account.
“I removed the SD card, cleaned it up, stuck it in a card reader and after being underwater in a corroding camera since August 2010 – it works!,” he wrote. “Approximately 50 pictures on the card from a family vacation.”
He then asked his community to help unite the camera and pictures with the owner. “If you know a fire fighter from British Columbia whose team won the Pacific Regional Firefit competition, has a lovely wife and (now) 2 year old daughter – let me know. I would love to get them their vacation photos :).”
Someone from Firefit, a firefighters competition in Canada, noticed the post and emailed Thompson to say that the original owner had been notified and he’d be in contacted soon. It’s unknown if the camera and the original owner have been reunited yet.
When the story was first posted it created quite the stir on Google+ and was shared hundreds of times in a community effort to reunite the owner and his camera. When news spread that he had been found, people were excited.
“I cant believe you found the owner!! Wow… good work!!! :) It’s quite a long shot,” Isabelle Cardinal wrote. “Congrats to you!! And to your pretty good detective and G+ people looking out for the owner!! :)”
Even if it has taken time for Google’s social media site to take off, it is certainly creating a tight knit community, at least in the eyes of some. “I posted this on Facebook early this morning to try my luck there – it received one ‘like’ – that’s it (there’s a reason I left),” Thompson wrote.
Photo from Markus Thompson’s Google+ feed