Found on Facebook
The Facebook hook-up that saved hundreds of treasured holiday photos.
It was back in March, my nephew and his wife trekked north to Queensland for a short getaway and to attend the 25th Wedding anniversary celebrations of Wendy and I. They stayed in an apartment in Caloundra, nice place around the corner from the Kings Beach Tavern.
When they packed and left for the cooler southern states they found an SD card tucked away in the back of a draw. Having a quick look there seemed to be a great deal of holiday snaps, from several different overseas locations as well as some video too.
My nephew left the card with me and I embarked on trying to find the owner of the card. First, who are these lovely older folk. Scanning the images, one by one, cruising, great wall of China amongst the venues. They were not edited, some blurred, others not quite good enough to keep, so clearly they hadn’t been sorted, but maybe on their computer. Bored, and banking on Murphy’s Law, I went to the bottom of the list and moved up. Not long and I found a picture of a reservation board with a persons initial and surname at the bottom. Was the picture for this name and the associated to the event or just the event?
Looking at more pictures, more pictures, more, great shots of Chinese food, the great wall, (looked cold while they were there). Then, out of the blue, a picture, (of maybe a driver or tour guide) an Asian gentleman holding up a board with his full name on it and that of his wife.
That was all I needed. I could have called the apartments, maybe got a name or something, but hopes were not high as the card could have been there for a long time, (my nephews wife is very systematic when leaving anywhere they have stayed) so it might have been jammed up the back for a long while. So I did the Facebook search!
It came back with a result, the gentleman’s full name.
This person was a retired Duputy Principal, from the look of the pictures on the SD card, I’d say right age group.
Click the Facebook link, and……. Yes ! this is the person who mislayed the SD card. Holiday photos saved.
Now to contact him, direct message.. that would do it. Something inside me said I might be waiting a while, his Facebook timeline wasn’t busy at all. Enough activity to see that he’s gone ahead and at least set up some of his profile.
I sent the message and waited.
This was back in late March this year. Yesterday afternoon in mid-October a call from a blocked number came through to my phone (gave that as a contact too)
We exchanged pleasantries, and he was really surprised that I still had the SD card, untouched. I explained how I’d identified him and probably if he was David Smith, gotta be lots of them on Facebook, I might have tried the apartment but Facebook won out, just by being “Public” enough for someone to find them identify them and connect.
Thanks Ray!
