I also still had some photos on the digital camera from my grandson's birthday party a couple of weeks earlier.

I left my son's house Monday morning, drove to Boulder and then spent most of the afternoon working. I finished about 4:30 and decided to take a walk around town. I took my camera with me in case I saw anything that would make a good photo. The camera was in a black case with a shoulder strap.

After I had been walking for about a 20 minutes, I realized the camera was no longer on my shoulder. I hadn't stopped anywhere or put the camera down, so I guess the shoulder strap broke. I retraced my steps, walking every place I had remembered walking, and didn't see the camera. I was upset, because I hadn't transferred the photos I had taken to my laptop. The camera was about a year old, and had cost about $250 or so when I purchased it. I figured I was out the cost of the camera. (Cameras are replaceable, though. The photos in it weren't!)

The tourist booth in the center of the Pearl Street Mall was closed by this time, so I went there the next day to ask if anyone had turned in the camera. No one had. The following day, I had a little bit more time between meetings, so I walked along the Pearl Street Mall, stopping in a couple of stores here and there and asking if anyone had turned in a camera.

No such luck. But when I stopped at the Earthwood Gallery, a Fine Art, Jewelry and Art Glass boutique that had just opened, the store manager, Kay Nuissl, was nice enough to make a few calls around town for me, including one to the police department. The police department took my name and phone number and said they'd call if the camera was turned in. (If anyone from Boulder is reading, be sure to stop into Earthwood. They've got a lot of unique and attractive stuff - including some fantastic colored glass globes that caught my eye.)

I had to leave Boulder early the next day. I figured the camera - and the pictures in it - were gone for good. But then, to my surprise, the Boulder police department called while I was on the plane and left a message on my cell phone saying someone had turned in a camera and they wanted me to call to describe the camera I had lost to see if it was the same one.

It was! It had been turned in by Michael Touchton, a Political Science grad student and teacher at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Now all I had to do was find a way to get the camera back to New York.

One of the business people I had met with in Boulder is email deliverability and whitelisting expert, Anne Mitchell, whose office is in Boulder. Anne was kind enough to retrieve the camera from the police for me, and ship it back to me in New York.

I've been to Boulder a few times on business in the last several years, and have always liked the town. When I'm not working, I love to shop, so the interesting little boutiques like the Earthwood Gallery along the Pearl Street Mall are part of the city's charm for me.

But what really makes Boulder rock is the people. Any time I've been there, I've found everyone friendly and helpful. But this time I was just amazed that so many people went out of their way to make sure the lost camera got back to me.

One other take away from this incident for me: I need to put labels with my contact information on my camera, cell phone and other items I carry with me when I travel.

Comments