Gizmodo: lost and found

Sleuthy NYC Couple Use Deckard Technique to Find Aussie Lost-Camera Owner

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:13:03 EST

It was like a real-life scene from Blade Runner, well, except for the pleasure-model skin jobs, the handguns that sound like laser blasters and the whole Harrison Ford thing. An NYC couple stumbles upon a digital camera left in a cab on New Year's Eve, and decide to turn all sleuthy.

They pore over the 300 photos and videos in the memory card—which probably wasn't exactly legal—landing upon a shot of a bunch of people drunk in a bar, wearing nametags. Though the names themselves seemed to lead nowhere, a couple clicks up and to the right, a little zoom and voila! Our heroes could see the bar's name, written on an awning.

Popping over there, they shook down the bartender for information. The barman remembered a party and a particular "big tipper" who, fortunately for the couple, worked at another bar. They met up with her, and it turned out that her sister was amigos with the Australian who lost the camera. (What kind of amigo, I guess we'll never know.) After a few e-mails, the camera is making its way back to the bloke in Australia, who is happy to "know there are some honest people left in the world." [SMH]

Sure, it's a cute story, but the question is this:

TrackItBack Helps You Recover Lost Gear

Jason Chen — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:00:15 EDT

If you're not a fan of carving your name, phone number, and address on the back of your RAZR like your mom did to your elementary school lunchbox, then TrackItBack may be the sticker for you. TrackItBack is basically a set of stickers for your camera, cellphone or MP3 player labelled with a confidential ID tha only you and they know. If you lose your gadget—and someone nice picks it up—the guy who finds it calls the 800 number on the back and uses the ID to get a set of instructions on how to device back to you.

Stickers cost around $12.99, and are sold in various packs and sizes depending on what you want to protect. You could, of course, print out your own stickers with your info on it. But then how would TrackItBack's employees feed their children? – Jason Chen

Product Page [TrackItBack via Chip Chick]

From Bad Samaritan to Good: Londonite Bends Over Backwards to Return Camera

Charlie White — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 14:34:19 EST

After posting the story of the bad Samaritan in Hawaii who kept a digital camera found in a park, returning burned CDs of the pictures within instead of the camera itself to its rightful owner, we received 29 comments, almost unanimously condemning such acts of thievery. Some people.

Now it's time to restore your faith in humanity, as we turn from the bad Samaritan to the good: A Londonite found a digital camera and went to the trouble of creating a website to find its rightful owner. From the site:

To anyone viewing this page, please forward the url to everyone you know, and let s see if we can return it to its owner.

Yes, there are some good people left in this world. Here's hoping the prodigal camera finds its way home.

Good Sams try to find the owners of a lost camera [boingboing]