Returning A Lost Camera

[Palanan]

A couple months ago I found a camera that had been lost in a scrubby thicket, and since then I've been trying to think of some way to contact the owners and get their photos back to them.

I live not far from the ocean, and the camera evidently belonged to a family who came down for a weekend vacation about a year ago. The camera itself is ruined--too many months of rain and salt air--but the memory card is fine, and I was able to access the photos without any problem.

The trouble is that these are pretty standard vacation photos, together with some typical suburban Americana: the Little League game, the monster trucks in the mud, plus some kind of baby shower and a few other vignettes. I know generally where they came from--the rural outskirts of a large city a couple hours away--but nothing more specific, and no idea how to go about contacting them. "Monster trucks and Little League" describes half the population of my state.

So, does anyone have any suggestions on how to get these photos back? As I mentioned, the camera itself is a loss, but it would still be nice to return their vacation photos, monster trucks and all.

[thubby]

does the little league field have a name?
do the teams?

how do you know they're near the city? if you can physically see it in a photo you could determine if they're north/south etc of it based on the position of the sun.

you could always try getting in touch with local authorities. even without using their authority or resources, the police tend to be the people who know a town best.

[Serpentine]

There's a few websites you could try:
Camera Found (http://www.camerafound.com/)
Stolen Camera Finder (http://www.stolencamerafinder.com/)
Those are the top two results. I think I might've heard of another one... but I could also be thinking of Camera Found.
Other options include contacting the police, canvassing hotels in the area it looked like they were staying to see if anyone recognises them, printing off one or two photos and posting them around the place with contact information to see if anyone recognises them, and/or using the power of Facebook to share it along - you never know, they might've been visiting someone they know in the area, who might know someone you know.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Serpentine
There's a few websites you could try:
Camera Found
Stolen Camera Finder

Thanks for the suggestions, and interesting you mention the second site.

In fact another wrinkle, which may or may not be useful, is that I found the camera several miles from the hotel where they were apparently staying, and there are no photos from anywhere near the spot where it was resting. I've been trying to figure how the camera could have traveled those several miles, especially when there's no indication the owners went with it, and theft is one possibility.

That said, there's also no real evidence that it was stolen, since there aren't any incongruous photos appearing after the family shots.

And I've certainly thought about checking with both the hotel and the police; but in the first case, it's been a solid year and this area lives on tourism, so no one's likely to remember anything--assuming the same people still work there; and as for the police, I really doubt if they would care.

[thubby]

wait, if you know where they stayed, can't you just talk to the hotel staff? they probably have some kind of contact information

[snoopy13a]

Turning it in to the local police station is usually the best option. It might also be the law in your jurisdiction.

The police might not care, but they will take it, inventory it, and put it in their lost and found. Someone who lost a valuable may call the police to see if it was turned in.

[Kiren]

Check the pictures for location data maybe? The camera could also still have serial numbers on it. Might not help though.

[Ravens_cry]

Post a picture with contact information you are comfortable giving out on facebook, asking people to find the people in that photo. They can contact you and arrange with you a means of getting their camera back.

[GnomeFighter]

the Little League game

So, does anyone have any suggestions on how to get these photos back? .

I suggest see if you can work out the Little League teams. Then find them on the Internet (They will probably have a face book page or website). Email someone at each one and ask if they know the people in the holiday & baby shower photos. If you can't work out the team yourself but you have an idea of the town/city then find the league coordinate (again on the Internet) and email them asking them for the names of the two teams and work from that.

Might also be worth sticking up the photo of the little league game and monster trucks some places. Someone may recognize the teams or venue which will give you a start. I assume it is a monster truck rally rather than a privately owned job, if so try and work out a name of the truck and go to there website. That might give you a lits of appearances.

If you get the pics up somewhere put up a link for us so we can have a go at the investigation :) (Obviously don't stick up the personal ones like the baby shower, but the generic "life in small town US" would be good, along with the name of the town you think they are from).

[Mhelisis]

facebook [...] asking people to find the people in that photo

I don't think it's a very good suggestion... I think that pictures are personal. Some people don't want their pictures floating on the Internet (in most countries, it's even illegal (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Country_specific_consent_requirements) to publish someone else's picture without their consent).

[Deathslayer7]

That would be the easiest way to find them though. Facebook is vast and large, and if enough people share it, sooner or later a friend of the owner, or the owner will spot it.

As long as any names aren't given out, I doubt it will be a problem.

[Serpentine]

Yeah. You wouldn't want to pick any compromising or clearly private photos, but unless the people in the photos are having an affair or lied to their bosses to get the holiday off or they're in the Witness Protection Program, I'm pretty sure the chance that there'd be a problem with posting one or two representative photos is vanishingly small.

[Palanan]

I appreciate the views and advice, but I wouldn't want photos of myself posted without my knowledge or permission, and I certainly don't feel right putting someone else's photos online. Maybe other people would be okay with that, but I'm not, and I don't want to blindly assume these folks would be either.

The Little League team is probably the best angle to pursue. Thanks for the suggestions and perspectives, I appreciate the efforts to help.

[Grinner]

At the risk of encouraging Orwellian enterprise, isn't there open-source facial recognition software available? If you could find an index of Facebook photos, it might be a relatively simple, if lengthy, process to find the owners.