THIS story is a nice reminder that the world has become a very small place, and that there are still a lot of good people left out there. It gives hope to those who have left important things in faraway places.
Lyndon Lisheng, a young man from Singapore, took a holiday in Australia, where among other things, he swam in the ocean at Balmoral Bay near Sydney. He unknowingly dropped his camera in the water and by the time he discovered it was missing, it was too late to try recovering it. The camera was replaceable, but the hundreds of photos on the memory card were not.
In 2015, another man on holiday, Rory Fitzgerald from England, swam in the same bay and spotted the camera on the seabed. He recovered it and decided that the camera was beyond saving, but the memory card loaded with 3.5 GB of pics was still good. “I have been swimming across the globe and you find a lot of things, most often golf balls,” said Fitzgerald.
Nothing on the camera itself indicated its owner, so Fitzgerald decided to look at the photos for clues, and among them he found an image of a driver’s license and someone wearing a t-shirt for a 21k Marina Run in Singapore from 2011. Fitzgerald added, “I like to do the right thing and return objects to where they belong.” He found the marina running group on Facebook and posted a message along with the picture, hoping the camera’s owner or someone who knew him would come forward. Then nothing happened for five years.
In 2020, Lisheng happened to be searching for himself online, as many people do, found the posting, and replied to it. Even though he was not the person in the photo, he recognized it as having come from his camera. “It’s a reminder that whatever you put on social media stays there,” observed Fitzgerald. “I had forgotten about the post until I heard from Lyndon [Lisheng].”
From Singapore to Australia to the UK. Understandably, Lisheng did not want the memory card to be sent in the mail, so the photos were returned when he visited the United Kingdom to attend a wedding and met up with Fitzgerald. “I have travelled across the world for swimming events, and we have made friends along the way.” Now he can add Lisheng to that list.
BC Cook, PhD taught history for over 20 years. He lived on Saipan and travels the Pacific but currently lives on the mainland U.S.
BC Cook
