Cape Town - After five years in the ocean, a lost GoPro camera was found in usable condition by a group of children at a Hout Bay beach this week.
Mom, Bianca Said, said on Tuesday at around 4pm she was at the beach with her son and his friends.
“While the kids were swimming in the waves they spotted something in the water. They pulled it out of the sand as they thought it was a toy, only to discover that it was a GoPro camera covered in shells and little shrimps, with a little rust on the cover,” she said.
“The boys Kaylem (Conradie) and James (Said), both 10, were then wondering how we would be able to find the owner. I then decided to take it home to see if I could get footage off it and find the owners. I could not get the camera to turn on, but I checked the card with my camera and found a picture of a lady with a surfboard and put it up on our local Facebook group called Hout Bay Organised.”
Said said to her surprise within five minutes someone recognised the woman in the picture as their mother.
“He said his mom and brother had gone out supping in 2016 and lost the camera. On the footage you can actually see how they lost the camera. It was washing around, and then you see it hit the sand at the bottom of the ocean. It’s amazing that it had been sitting there for five years and didn’t get buried in the sand. The cover just has a little rust on it, but the camera is in perfect condition.”
According to Said, the boys have been very excited about the positive comments their good deed received.
“It’s such a good lesson for them about how you can make someone else happy by doing a good deed. I would hope if I lost something, someone would make an effort to return it.”
She said she had been in touch with the owner, who she would be meeting at the weekend.
“She is also the owner of a charter company and has promised the boys and their little sisters, Grace and Mila, a free boat ride, which they are very excited about,” Said said.