Camera Found - International effort pays off

March 16, 2009 7:34 PM

The owner of a camera stolen in Krakow and bought on E-Bay is reunitied with their pictures An amazing story about an international effort to track down the owner of a camera stolen in Krakow, Poland. The camera was bought on E-Bay and found to have 1100 pictures on it. Through some fantastic work by members of the Australian Photography Forum, the owner of the camera was found by analysing the pictures.
posted by Man_in_staysis (5 comments total)

So the photos were returned, but the eBay purchaser retains possession of the stolen goods?

I guess it's better than nothing…
posted by paisley henosis at 8:51 PM on March 16, 2009

Apparently:

I'm going to send pictures via Air Mail recorded on DVD. Memory card will stay for longer with me, because I'm going get back money from the person who sell stolen camera to me.

I guess he could get his money refunded, and then mail the camera to the girl who had it stolen, but it seems just as likely that he might return it to the thief for a refund.

The last post in the thread is someone who signed up just to ask: " So are the girls going to get their camera back too? "
posted by paisley henosis at 8:55 PM on March 16, 2009

Apparently the owner's address was visible in one of the photos. That's still pretty cool and all, but I was hoping this would turn out to be a globetrotting adventure, finding passersby from the photos in various cities around the world, talking to them, gathering clues, and finally tracking down the owner with the help of dozens of internet forum members and hundreds of photographed strangers.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:57 PM on March 16, 2009

Meh. A half dozen posts of actual sleuthing followed by 4 pages of "good on ya mate". Props to the guys that made it happen, but otherwise ... meh. I want my 5 minutes back.
posted by intermod at 10:12 PM on March 16, 2009

"Apparently the owner's address was visible in one of the photos."

I encourage my clients to take a picture of their name, phone umber and email address and keep it as their first image on all their cards. Makes it easy for an honest person to return the camera if ever found.
posted by Mitheral at 7:32 PM on March 18, 2009