Scuba Diver Reunited with Lost Camera after Journey of 1,000 Miles

A Dutch navy sergeant was scuba diving off the coast of Aruba when he lost his waterproof digital camera. It washed up six months later on the shore of Key West, Florida, where it was discovered by Paul Schultz. He turned it on, downloaded the pictures, and then posted them on an Internet message board in the hope of locating the camera's owner:

Under the name "Aquahound", he uploaded the images to Scubaboard.com, an online diving community, asking for help. Within days, users identified the location as Aruba, a Dutch island off the Venezuelan coast.

A plane's tail number was visible in one shot, and a computer search showed the aircraft was on the island on the day the photograph was taken. There was also a school poster written in Dutch.

Mr Shultz duly posted the pictures on the travel websites Cruisecritic and Aruba.com, and two days later a local woman contacted him to say she recognised the children in the photos as classmates of her son. Camera and owner were duly reunited.


Link | Photo (unrelated): CDC

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The author/illustrator's name escapes me, but look in the children's section of your local bookstore for a picture-book called "Flotsam." It's about a waterproof camera that washes up on the shore...
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Glad the guy got his camera back. But regarding:
"A plane’s tail number was visible in one shot, and a computer search showed the aircraft was on the island on the day the photograph was taken"
How else would the plane be in the photograph unless it was there the day the photograph was taken?
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bikerray: An Nikon Coolpix is have has the option to choose a loading screen picture, it puts it somewhere in the camera, i just updated it with my a picture of my email adress (thanks to your thinking).
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I'm just wondering if (some) cameras have an option to retain the top image without it being erasable. Then you can take a picture of a card with your address on it for the convenience of someone who might find it. My gps has a power-up screen with my name/address on it for just that reason.
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