The Tale of the Traveling Nikon
Annika1980
bench. She happened to work in my office and since she knew nothing
about cameras asked me if it was any good or worth keeping. Sadly, it
was a Nikon Coolpix 4100, a 4MP piece of junk hardly worth saving. The
lady was very sad when I told her this as the thought of scoring some
bucks on EBAY had already crossed her mind.
As for myself, I was more interested in the pics on the camera and who
they might belong to. So I took the camera home, downloaded the pics
from the cheapo SD card inside and looked at them. The card contained
family photos and from the pics it was obvious that it belonged to a
little girl. There was no owner ID embedded in the EXIF info but the
photos on the card told a story about where the family had been.
Obviously, they were just passing through town on vacation. Some of
the pics were taken at the hotel across the street from my office so I
knew they had stayed there. There were pics taken from the back seat of
the minivan of the Nashville skyline and the big bridge that you cross
going from Tennessee into Kentucky. So the destination was up Illinois
/ Indiana way.
Also, some of the pics were of an elderly couple who lived in a nice
little house .... somewhere. All I could glean from that was the
street address .... "330" .. on the front of the house. But who
knows what street, what town, or even what state?
The elderly man looked to be in pretty bad shape. I noticed a walker
beside the chair where he sat as well as a cap saying "FBI" on it.
There were some photos of the traveling family that owned the cammy,
which I printed. On some of the pics the Dad was wearing a hat that
said "Indiana University" so maybe they were visiting Indiana?
I took the pics I'd printed to the hotel the next day and the desk
clerk told me she recognized the family who had checked out the
previous day. She recalled the little girl crying at the loss of her
camera. I told her that the photographic evidence on the photos showed
that the little girl attended a school in NE Atlanta (one of the pics
was of her wearing a school shirt). The desk clerk could offer no more
clues saying, "Almost all of the people who checked out yesterday are
from Georgia." Thanks for nothin, lady.
The camera sat on my office table for almost a month before I decided
to really make an effort to locate the owners (hey, I've been busy!).
So the other night I started reviewing the pics once again, making
notes as I went. A few of the pics were of the little girl's brother
playing baseball. His cap said "All-Stars" so I knew he must've
been good. Also, the letters "NYO" were on his cap and a quick web
search of the Atlanta area showed that "NYO" stood for Northwest
Youth Organization. Fortunately, that athletic association has a very
nice website with lots of team pics. I looked through most of them
before recognizing what looked to be the kid in the camera photos.
Fate must've been smiling on me because his name wasn't Smith,
Jones, or Johnson. No, his last name had 14 letters in it, narrowing
down considerably my future web searches. When I typed his last name
into whitepages.com it only returned two hits in Atlanta, both of them
at the same address. Good old Mom and Dad, no doubt.
Cross-referencing, I typed his last name into the same site, this time
using Indiana as the state and got exactly one hit ..... on 330 E. 5th
St. That's right .... "330."
BINGO!
I called the two numbers listed and left messages on the recordings. I
also sent an e-mail to the one e-mail address I could track down. A
couple of days passed with no response. I left a few more messages, but
still nothing.
Finally, this morning I received an e-mail from the Mom saying that her
daughter did indeed lose her digital camera and was distraught over it.
And the reason it took so long to get back to me was that the family
had gone back to Indiana. The sick elderly gentleman had passed away.
The photos on the camera were the last pics they had of grandpa. So I
called the lady and the little girl answers and says, "Is this about
the camera?" I said, "Yes, I have it." The girl says, "I just
have one question .... Are the photos still on the camera?"
I said, "Hell no, kid I deleted all that crap!"
JUST KIDDING!
I told her that her pics were safe and then I talked to the little
girl's mom and told her the whole story of how I tracked them down
(omitting the part about me being a stalker, of course). She told me
of her late father-in-law who had just passed and said he would have
been proud of me. It seems he spent his life working for the FBI. The
little girl wanted to know if I was an angel. I chose not to answer
that one.
After talking to them on the phone I e-mailed the mom about how the
lady who found the camera would probably appreciate a phone call of
thanks. I gave them her number in our office and waited for the call.
About 30 minutes later the phone rang, and the lady who found the phone
answers and hears the little girl thank her. Then the mom gets on the
phone and thanks her and tells her what it meant to their family to get
the camera and their precious photos back. When the lady in my office
hung up, she was bawling all over the place. "Tears of joy," she
called them.
At lunchtime I went to the UPS store and mailed the camera back home.
The little girl will have her camera and her pics tomorrow.
Now I ask you, "WHO RULES???"
-Annika ----> loves happy endings
PTravel
"Annika1980" <annik...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1155167136.8...@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
>
> Now I ask you, "WHO RULES???"
You do!
What a great story. Thanks for sharing it.
Daniel Silevitch
> -Annika ----> loves happy endings
Bravo, sir! Well done.
I am, however, disappointed in you, that you didn't try to convince the
young girl to abandon her Nikon for a Canon...
-dms
Rob-L
are still people in the world who take the time to do the right thing.
Rob-L
Las Vegas
USA
--------
RecGroups : the community-oriented newsreader : www.recgroups.com
Matt Ion
> After talking to them on the phone I e-mailed the mom about how the
> lady who found the camera would probably appreciate a phone call of
> thanks. I gave them her number in our office and waited for the call.
> About 30 minutes later the phone rang, and the lady who found the phone
> answers and hears the little girl thank her. Then the mom gets on the
> phone and thanks her and tells her what it meant to their family to get
> the camera and their precious photos back. When the lady in my office
> hung up, she was bawling all over the place. "Tears of joy," she
> called them.
*snif* I'm gettin' a little misty myself :)
Nicely done!
Annika1980
Daniel Silevitch wrote:
>
> Bravo, sir! Well done.
>
> I am, however, disappointed in you, that you didn't try to convince the
> young girl to abandon her Nikon for a Canon...
>
All in time, my good man. All in time.
The child is only 11. At that age a toy camera like a Nikon makes more
sense.
When she matures a bit, I'm sure she'll make the upgrade.
Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)
Very nice story. Congratulations on the detective work.
Roger
Jay Beckman
Well Done.
Jay
Volker Hetzer
> Now I ask you, "WHO RULES???"
People who bother.
Thanks a lot!
Volker
Neil Ellwood
> Now I ask you, "WHO RULES???"
>
> -Annika ----> loves happy endings
Brett,
You do.
--
Neil
Delete l to reply
g n p
story!!!!!!!!!!!!
How's Divot doing?? I'm a big fan.
ColinD
> I'm amazed that none of your follow-up posters doubted the veracity of your
> story!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why should we? In all the posts Bret has put up over the years, I've
never seen him produce any bullshit. Witty, yes. Terse, sometimes.
Joking, often. Boasting about who/what rules, frequently {:-)
Lies, never.
Colin D.
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
Joan
Don't hotel guests have to register their home address on check-in?
--
Joan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joan-in-manly
poddys
the scent like a bloodhound it's a big adrenaline rush isn't it. It
felt great for me last fall when I was doing family tree research and
found several closeish relatives, one of who was the granddaughter of
my grandfathers sister, people we had never known about before.
A very nice piece of detective work on your part, and a very happy
ending to a cute yet sad story. If we could all do out bit when our
turn came the world might be a happier place.
And none of this would be possible without digital cameras and the
internet.........
no_name
> Well done Brett. But one question if I may.
>
> Don't hotel guests have to register their home address on check-in?
>
Usually, but hotels aren't obliged to divulge it to every tom, dick &
harry who walks in off the street.
Annika1980
Joan wrote:
> Well done Brett. But one question if I may.
>
> Don't hotel guests have to register their home address on check-in?
Yes. The hotel has a list of the people who had checked out the
previous day, but they had no idea which family it was. It shouldn't
have been too tough for them to try to find it out, however, even if it
meant calling every family on the list. The desk clerk said she'd try
to contact the owners and then contact me. I didn't hear from her the
first day so i went over there again the following day. She said that
she thought she knew who the people were, but couldn't reach them yet,
but she'd keep trying. I never did hear back from them and the lady
who owned the camera told me that the hotel never called them at all.
No doubt that if I had access to the hotel's records I could've had the
camera back to the owner that very week. But the hotel didn't know me
from Adam. For all they knew I could've been a stalker or a thief
bucking for a reward.
The hotel's attitude was like, "Oh, well..."
Charlie Choc
>Once upon a time a lady found a digital camera on a downtown park
>bench.
[snip]
Very nice story and good for you.
--
Charlie...
http://www.chocphoto.com
Annika1980
poddys wrote:
> A very nice piece of detective work on your part, and a very happy
> ending to a cute yet sad story. If we could all do out bit when our
> turn came the world might be a happier place.
>
> And none of this would be possible without digital cameras and the
> internet.......
The true moral of this story is how much photos can tell about you and
how much information can be gleaned from them using simple internet
searches.
>From a few pics on a child's camera and a few google searches, I
learned the identity of the family, their names, where they work,
charities they donate to, addresses, e-mail addresses, where the kids
go to school, where their parents live, etc.
The other lesson is to set your camera to record the owner's name in
the EXIF data or else create a text file with it on the memory card in
case it ever gets lost.
Me
now:-)
BTW, I'm still trying to find the bridge you cross from TN to
KY...Maybe it was KY to IN up at Louisville.
On 9 Aug 2006 16:45:36 -0700, "Annika1980" <annik...@aol.com> wrote:
SimonLW
news:1155167136.8...@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
have been tuff not to just toss it :- )
Good job! Positive feedback
A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
George Kerby
Great story! Perhaps you (or someone) should contact the local news media.
With all the bad news these days, stories like yours, like warm puppies and
kittens, are sorely needed. Congrats on your perseverance!
----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= East/West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---
George Kerby
On 8/10/06 6:09 AM, in article 1155208184.686350@athnrd02, "g n p"
<gpa...@ath.forthnet.gr> wrote:
> I'm amazed that none of your follow-up posters doubted the veracity of your
> story!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can't make up stuff like this? My guess...
Rob-L
this section:
"Also, the letters "NYO" were on his cap and a quick web
search of the Atlanta area showed that "NYO" stood for Northwest
Youth Organization. Fortunately, that athletic association has a very
nice website with lots of team pics. I looked through most of them
before recognizing what looked to be the kid in the camera photos.
Fate must've been smiling on me because his name wasn't Smith,
Jones, or Johnson. No, his last name had 14 letters in it, narrowing
down considerably my future web searches."
Now even though your motives were pure, I find this part disturbing. For
you to get the brothers name they would have either had to display it on
their website with his photo or divulge that information to you on the
phone. That part that disturbs me is how easy it was to get this child's
name and picture from the internet. In these times of internet sexual
preditors I would be a little disturbed if I was the boys parents. (Of
course, I am assuming this boy was underage.)
Rob-L
Las Vegas
USA
______________________________________________________________________
: the next generation of web-newsreaders : http://www.recgroups.com
Bill Funk
wrote:
>The other lesson is to set your camera to record the owner's name in
>the EXIF data or else create a text file with it on the memory card in
>case it ever gets lost.
Won't last long for those who format the card after each file dump.
Nice work, though! :-)
--
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"
Helen
"Annika1980" <annik...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1155167136.8...@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
> bench. She happened to work in my office and since she knew nothing
But did the dog survive the fire?
Annika1980
Rob-L wrote:
> Now even though your motives were pure, I find this part disturbing. For
> you to get the brothers name they would have either had to display it on
> their website with his photo or divulge that information to you on the
> phone. That part that disturbs me is how easy it was to get this child's
> name and picture from the internet. In these times of internet sexual
> preditors I would be a little disturbed if I was the boys parents. (Of
> course, I am assuming this boy was underage.)
Don't be such a nervous ninny. They've been printing kids names in the
newspapers for years. So what's the difference? And how does that
help an internet sexual predator?
I don't think too many internet sexual predators are locating potential
victims by team photos on the internet. They do it through chat rooms.
Or so I've heard.
Do you really think some perv in New Jersey is gonna see a kid's photo
in a team pic from Atlanta and say, "Wow, he's cute! I think I'm gonna
go down to Atlanta and molest him!"
Rob-L
No, I think a perv in Atlanta will see his picture and may get bad ideas.
How does it help a sexual preditor? The same way it helped you. You were
able to get the phone number and address of that person.
Ask someone who has been molested or stalked if they think it's a good
idea that people give away personal information to a stranger. It's people
like you who wait for something bad to happen before you question things.
Kindly kiss my ass.
Rob-L in L.V.
_______________________________________________________________________
Annika1980
Rob-L wrote:
>>
> Ask someone who has been molested or stalked if they think it's a good
> idea that people give away personal information to a stranger. It's people
> like you who wait for something bad to happen before you question things.
>
The "personal information" I obtained has always been available, just
by different means. It is paranoids like yourself who make the
situation worse, especially for photographers. Nowadays, you can't
even take pics of children playing in the park without the friggin FBI
being called in. I'd say the odds of a molestor choosing his victim by
a photo of a baseball team on the internet is very close to zero. Much
more likely to see them at the mall or something.
So I hope you don't have kids. It would be pretty boring staying at
home all the time and wearing those black hoods when they do have to go
out in public.
> Kindly kiss my ass.
>
> Rob-L in L.V.
Sure, give me a minute to locate your exact address in Vegas. Or does
LV stand for Lower Venezuela?
Matt Ion
> I was thinking of your story a little bit after I'd read it. Specifically,
> this section:
>
> "Also, the letters "NYO" were on his cap and a quick web
> search of the Atlanta area showed that "NYO" stood for Northwest
> Youth Organization. Fortunately, that athletic association has a very
> nice website with lots of team pics. I looked through most of them
> before recognizing what looked to be the kid in the camera photos.
> Fate must've been smiling on me because his name wasn't Smith,
> Jones, or Johnson. No, his last name had 14 letters in it, narrowing
> down considerably my future web searches."
>
> Now even though your motives were pure, I find this part disturbing. For
> you to get the brothers name they would have either had to display it on
> their website with his photo or divulge that information to you on the
> phone.
...or it was printed on his uniform?
Paul J Gans
>Well done Brett. But one question if I may.
>Don't hotel guests have to register their home address on check-in?
Yes, but they won't give them out to folks who wander in
asking questions.
---- Paul J. Gans
Joan
--
Joan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joan-in-manly
"Annika1980" <annik...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1155304436.0...@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
:
: So I hope you don't have kids. It would be pretty boring staying at
:
:
Annika1980
Joan wrote:
> Ah, so that's why Michael Jackson covered the children's heads.
That's correct. Michael didn't want anybody molesting his kids unless
it was him.