The Underwater odyssey of a lost camera: how three years later the camera returned to the owner

An incredible story of luck and a whole chain of coincidences: the camera was dropped into the sea three years ago, then it washed up on the beach in Taiwan, where it was found and returned to the owner. The camera, covered with algae and growths, was discovered by a group of schoolchildren with a teacher, and at first they hardly understood what it was. But despite all the misadventures of the sea, the camera works perfectly.

Schoolchildren posted a photo of the find on Facebook, and the happy owner of the camera was found.

Photos from the same camera

"I just couldn't believe it," Serina Tsubakihara, the owner of the camera, told the BBC. "I was incredibly surprised when a friend told me about it and sent me a post with photos."

Serina Tsubakihara, a student at a Japanese university, was on vacation on Ishigaki Island, 250 kilometers from Taiwan. "I was scuba diving when I lost my camera. My friend ran out of oxygen in the tank, and I had to help him."

The camera floated away from Tsubakihara's hands in September 2015, and she thought she had lost it forever. But thanks to the waterproof case, the camera went on an underwater odyssey. He swam hundreds of kilometers and ended up on the shore on Taiwan — where he was found by schoolchildren cleaning the beach from garbage.

"She was found by an 11-year-old boy,— said teacher Park Lee. — We thought it was probably broken. But they accidentally opened the case and found that the water had not penetrated inside. Moreover, the boy pressed the button, the camera turned on and was even charged."

Park Lee consulted with the children, and they decided to publish some photos preserved on the device. The footage was shot in Japan, so they assumed that the owner was Japanese. Therefore, the post was published in Chinese and Japanese.

As a result, the publication was shared more than 10 thousand times, until finally it reached the unsuspecting owner of the camera Serina Tsubakihara. "I'm so glad! I was incredibly lucky to experience the miracle of kindness of strangers." The girl is going to go to Taiwan in June and thank the teacher and students who found her long-lost camera.