After almost a decade, a lost camera and 3Gb of Australian holiday memories have been reunited with their owner. Photo / Getty Images
After almost a decade, a lost camera and 3Gb of Australian holiday memories have been reunited with their owner. Photo / Getty Images
After almost seven years a camera and its contents have been returned to their owner, thanks to a very identifiable T shirt.
UK holidaymaker Rory Fitzgerald spotted the camera while on a diving trip to Australia. He retrieved the camera from the bottom of Sydney's Balmoral Bay and 3.5GB ofphotos on a trip in 2015 and had been looking for its owner ever since.
The camera itself was damaged beyond repair but, to his surprise, the memory card contained a treasure trove of clues.
In July 2015 Fitzgerald posted a photo from the mystery camera to Facebook.
"This may be a long shot, but I am trying to re-unite someone with a lost memory card which I found whilst visiting Australia…" he wrote.
Among the clues at his disposal were images of a Singaporean driving licence belonging to Lee Lisheng, Lydon and a man in a race T-shirt from the Marina 21k race in Singapore.
He thought it was all in vain until in 2020, he received a message out of the blue from someone claiming to be its owner.
A long shot: Fitzgerald posted the lost pictures to Facebook in 2015 starting a 7 year saga. Photo / Screenshot, Facebook
Apparently Lydon stumbled across the post when he was Googling his name, years after the discovery, when the lost camera was a distant memory.
"Well, Facebook did its stuff!" wrote the diver last Friday, in a very late update to the post.
Lydon and Fitzgerald finally met this week after he was visiting the UK for a friend's wedding.
"Today, I met with and re-united Lyndon Lee with his long lost (around 3.5Gb ) photo memories."
The photos contained a distinctive T-shirt and other clues as to the owner's identity. Photo / Screenshot, Facebook
It turns out the man in the T-shirt was in fact a not Lydon but a friend, he instantly recognised the pictures and the memories of the trip to Australia came flooding back."
Fitzgerald, who is a long distance swimmer, travels the world for competitions and events. He said the adventure of the memory card was a lesson that what goes on social media stays on social media forever - and sometimes that's not a bad thing.
