Camera lost at Ohio State graduation returned to owner

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A camera lost at Ohio State University this past weekend has been reunited with its owner with the help of police.

While the camera itself was important, the memory card inside is even more meaningful, holding years of memories.

It started at Ohio Stadium Sunday after John Powers walked across the stage to graduate from Ohio State University.

His mother used a family camera to take pictures of the special moment, but when the family was back in the car, the camera was nowhere to be found.

In a time when most people use cell phones to capture special memories, some families still use traditional cameras.

The Powers family is one of those. Inside the camera is a memory card with pictures as old as six years and as recent as a few days ago.

Powers’ mother had been using the camera at the graduation Sunday. When he and his family got back to the car after the ceremony, they couldn’t find the camera. Other siblings and friends were called to help look for it, with the group even turning around on their way to dinner to go back and look.

“It was a top priority, especially that was the one we had all, we had just taken all of the grad photos the day before,” Powers said. “And on top of that, my mom doesn’t clean it out too often, so obviously years and years of pictures are still on that SD card.”

But after all the searching, the family had no luck finding it. Then Powers woke up to a social media post from Ohio State University Police.

“At first, I was a little scared,” Powers said. “I saw the pictures; I’m, like, ‘Oh no, like, is there a manhunt going on for me right now,’ and then I read it and I just thought it was really funny.”

Police had the camera. Lt. Joanna Shaul posted some of the pictures from the memory card hoping someone would be able to figure out who the camera belonged to.

“I was, like, ‘How are we going to get this camera back to these people?’” Shaul said. “And I had seen it work on other social media posts, so I just opened it up and picked two pictures off it that looked like they were the likely owner.”

And it worked. Within minutes, people were telling police it was the Powers family in the pictures. Powers getting the camera back Tuesday afternoon made his mother very happy.

“She is ecstatic,” he said. “She actually called me as soon as she found out. Like, ‘Is this real? Is this a real thing?”

Shaul is also an Ohio State graduate and said it feels extra special to have gotten those graduation day memories back for a fellow Buckeye.