Social media has unveiled its ability to bring people together in positive ways, after the owners of a camera found in Italy three years ago were tracked to Victor Harbor last week.
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The Times’ story about a German man’s search for the owners of the camera appeared in print last week, and was also posted to the newspaper’s Facebook page last Thursday, (October 30).
Using Facebook, it took less than three hours to identify the couple pictured in photos on the camera, as Susan and Steven Monaghan.
The photo was taken following the birth of their child at South Coast District Hospital in Victor Harbor.
Susan got in touch after being shown the story online and has revealed the camera’s owners are her aunty, uncle and cousins, who live in Singapore.
“I didn’t even know that my aunty had lost her camera - but she had travelled to Egypt and Italy so it is definitely hers,” she said.
“I am so, so grateful, as would be my aunt and uncle.”
Following the story, The Times was contacted by people from Port Lincoln, Goodwood, Adelaide and Victor Harbor, all of whom recognised Susan and Steven with their newborn. A girl in Singapore, friends with Susan’s cousin Monisha, also contacted The Times.
Mr Nicol Hellwig - not a Ms, as The Times previously printed, found the camera in the snow on Sass Pordoi (a mountain in the Dolomites) in northern Italy in 2011.
Nicol, who lives in Halle, east Germany, had been looking for the camera’s owner ever since, searching the time-stamped photos on it for clues.
He traced the camera’s owners across the world; at Lake Garda, the Egyptian pyramids and onboard a luxury yacht, and tried to contact hotels and boating companies but received no response.
“They had visited a young couple in a hospital who had just had a baby - this photo being taken on December 21, 2010,” he said.
Nicol found photos taken on the same day at a restaurant he identified by one of its napkins which read ‘Victor Harbor Fish Shop South Australia’.
Last month, Nicol noticed a promising trace - a Toyota with an Australian rental car company sticker visible - and realised the family had travelled through Australia.
Using Google, Nicol found Victor Harbor, and assumed the young family had foreign visitors right after their baby was born.
He then contacted The Times to aid his long distance search.
Nicol was ecstatic that the owners have been found.
“You just can’t imagine how happy I was when I read the article you published,” he said.
“I can hardly believe how lucky I am.
“Susie Monaghan got in touch with me, she is the woman in the photo taken in the hospital.”
Nicol also wrote to Monisha, and will now post the camera to her.
“What a happy ending! It’s been great fun for me,” he said.
“During my search I got to know so many new people who helped me with it.
“This camera has been with me for three years and all those experiences I had while searching for the owners will never be forgotten.”
Happy to have located the camera owners, Nicol had one final mission.
“I am not a crazy lady from Germany!” he said.
“I must explain now why, as in The Times article I was referred to as a woman.
“There is this name ‘Rene’ in France which is used for males as well as for females. Or in Italy, an ‘Andrea’ could be a man as well as a woman.
“With Nicol it’s like that: without the final ‘e’ it’s a name for boys, whereas Nicole or Nicola are girls’ names.”
Nicol is 40-years-old, married to Katja, and has a son, Leon, and a daughter, Lotte.
He works as a mechanic in an Audi garage and loves taking photos, jogging in the forest, reading, travelling, computing and server technology, and spending time with his family.
“So I’m just an ordinary guy from next door who found a camera on holiday,” he said.
PREVIOUSLY: German's search leads her to Victor Harbor.