There Has Always Been A Chance Today There Is A Bigger Chance
Awhile back I had the unfortunate thrill of having my car broken into. Lucky for me it was during the day and it was the old smash and grab style of break in. I had been foolish enough to leave my Cannon digital camera on the front seat in plain view. I had the numbers and reported it to the police; I thought theres a chance at least. About 8 months later I received a call from the police department that they had recovered my camera. I was totally amazed that it had been recovered and when I got it back it was in working order.
I was reminded of the above story today when I read a story today of a couple in Seattle, Washington, they had been vacationing in Iceland and that is where the story begins. The couple had returned to the U.S. by way of Reykjavk Domestic Airport last week. A young Icelandic woman found a digital camera on a bench and its owner was nowhere to be found. The woman took the camera home where she decided to upload the photographs on the camera to her Facebook profile. She included a request for all her friends to share the photos with their other friends. Icelandic Facebook users joined her efforts and spread the information on the worldwide web. The posting read; My cousin found the camera at Reykjavk Airport on Thursday 22nd March 2012, the album description read. The newest pictures were taken in Reykjavk.
From there the story was placed on Reddit, where it took on a new life. One other user started a thread advertising for the owner of the photos. The thread had some 700 replies, one of which was from an individual who knew the girl in the photos. She was his neighbor in Seattle. He sent her a message on Facebook alerting her to the photo album, she contacted the original finders in Reykjavk and the rest, is history.
The two stories show just how lucky a person can be. But more important they show a need to keep records of ID numbers and never stop looking. The internet has made this big blue marble a very small place. I doubt the second story would have had the same happy outcome without the internet.
Tags
Who is online
486 visitors
In a world where giving a rip is a rare trait, it's always nice to see a story like this.
It does tend to give me faith in others, misplaced as that may be.
Both amazing stories. You are the only person I know who ever recovered an item stolen, even with the ID numbers (something that Matt and I always do)
The other one just shows how interconnected we are these days. People used to talk about 6 degrees ofseparation, yet I think with modern technology we are even less than that. It is the ties that bind all of humanity. Amazing times indeed.
I really didn't think there was a chance of recovering my camera and was amazed when they called. Keeping the numbers was the thing that enabled them to recover it.
The couple from Washington are even more lucky than I.
I once had a car that was stolen. My son had left it outside unlocked, and the thief hot wired it. It was gone for two weeks, and then it was abandoned and found by the police. The insurance company not only fixed the damage doneby the thief, but fixed up everything else that previously had been damaged and needed repair. I got back the car in almost new condition.
When I was in the business of representing individuals called on the rug in adverse actions ... in their defenses, I lived by the mantra, "Speak softly and compile a paper trail." I had a number of cases overturned primarily because my paper trail (of events) was more definitive and compelling than that of the plaintiff.
And of course, all my "clients" were innocent.
Your comment, A.Mac., that all your "clients" were innocent reminded me of a true story about one of my best law schoolfriends. He became the Public Defender in Toronto, and one day he was representing a bunch of girls who had been picked up for "soliciting". One after the other he pleaded them "not guilty", until the Magistrate (I remember the magistrate's name was Donald Graham) said to my friend "Mr. XXX, you have been pleading all of these women 'not guilty'. Surely at least one of them must be guilty", whereupon my friend replied "Your honour, when I decided to go to Law School my mother made me promise that I would never associate with criminals, so it's a matter of principle that NONE of these ladies is guilty of an offence." The laughter in the court could be heard out in the hallway.