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Social Media Helps Reunite Lost Camera with Owners

Published  October 15, 2015 10:37pm EDT
U.S.
FOX 29 Philadelphia

Hamilton Township, NJ (WTXF) A local couple hundreds of miles from home lost a digital camera filled with priceless images. Years ago, that would have been the end of the story, but in this age of social media it was just the beginning of the story. This story has a very happy ending.

FOX 29's Bruce Gordon spent the evening in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, where the couple learned a valuable lesson about the kindness of strangers.

Donna Sommers didn't spend all of her time frolicking in the ocean when she and her husband, Tom, visited Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last month.

"For some reason, I brought the camera to the beach that day," she told FOX 29.

The Sommers love taking pictures their home in Hamilton Township, Mercer County is filled with them. But she also collects shells and Donna figures it was while reaching down to grab one that her digital camera fell out of her purse.

The Sommers had no way of knowing that a South Carolina couple: Roger Vaillancourt and Marie L'Heureux were also on the beach that day and found the camera. Their daughter told FOX 29 via Skype that her mom and dad spent hours trying to find the rightful owner.

The camera's worth a couple hundred bucks; however, the pictures inside were priceless and included an image of Tom and his daughter, Amber, at her high school graduation.

"It brought back memories of that day and it's a touching moment." Tim explained.

Jolyane Houston noticed one of the pictures from a family reunion which showed a young man wearing a T-shirt that read Bucks County, so just did a little Google search and figured out that was in Pennsylvania.

Jolyanae Houston asked us to post the pictures on our Facebook page, to try and locate their owner.

"So I figured, why not give it a shot and contact you guys to see if y'all could post it and somebody would recognize them."

We agreed, and in no time flat, tens of thousands of our Facebook friends saw those photos, including Tom Sommers' co-worker's wife. The connection had been made and now the camera is heading north. The camera should arrive any day now and gifts will be going to South Carolina.