Lost camera, memories recovered years later

Social media helps reunite owner with his 'digital message in a bottle'

VILANO BEACH, Fla. – A Clay County man is happy to have some long lost pictures back after losing a GoPro camera years ago. Austin Carter lost the camera in 2014 when he was surfing off the coast of Vilano Beach. He had his camera attached to his surfboard, but it fell off. He just assumed it was gone for good.

"I was really upset that I lost it. My parents were like, 'We'll buy you a new one, if you want one,'" Carter said.

The majority of the pictures on the camera were from a church mission trip to the Caribbean.

"I had a lot of cool stuff on there," Carter said.

Then, a couple years later, a man found the camera in the sand near the St. Augustine Beach pier, which is miles south of Vilano Beach.

"My mom's friend was actually walking along the beach in St. Augustine and found a camera floating in the water -- washed up on the shore. It turned out to be a GoPro. He contacted my mom and knew I worked well with GoPros and did all that," explained Jared Jeffs, who lives in St. Augustine Beach.

Jeffs is an amateur photographer with a lot of experience with GoPro cameras.

"I took it to my computer, put in the memory card, looked through all the photos, videos, everything and the last one was taken in spring, March of 2014," said Jeffs.

Other than a dead battery, there were no problems with the camera, Jeffs said. He posted photos on Facebook and eventually got a lot of shares. 

"I did what I thought was right and did a search for the owner. And maybe I was going to keep it for myself, but that was after I did a long search and wanted to actually get it back to the owner -- so I put it on Facebook.  Wrote up, 'Hey, found this GoPro. Everyone just share this please.' Put up a photo of him and his friends, and I took a selfie on top of a tropical island and posted that out," Jeffs explained.

Then, a person in one of the pictures was spotted wearing a shirt from Hibernia Baptist Church in Fleming Island.

Turns out, those pictures on Carter's GoPro were from a church mission trip to Grenada more than two years ago -- a camera he would lose a short time later.

"The youth pastor we were on the missions trip with, he texted me with the other kids in the picture, then showed me the Facebook share and said, 'Someone just told me about this. This is your GoPro, Austin.' I was like oh my goodness," said Carter.

Thanks to Jeffs' knowledge, his use of social media and the help of the church, Carter got his camera and his memories back.   

"I haven't really tried to use it, but when I charged it, I was shocked it turned on," said Carter. "I can't really believe that the case wasn't messed up and it still was intact. Shows how good GoPro is, really." ​

News4Jax asked Jeffs if he's considering contacting GoPro about a potential commercial showing how resilient the camera can be.

"I'm open to that, I'm very open to that," he responded with a smile.


About the Authors:

Scott is a multi-Emmy Award Winning Anchor and Reporter, who also hosts the “Going Ringside With The Local Station” Podcast. Scott has been a journalist for 25 years, covering stories including six presidential elections, multiple space shuttle launches and dozens of high-profile murder trials.