A Colgate couple’s tireless efforts to return a digital camera accidentally left in a New York City taxicab to its owner became the focus of an Associated Press article picked up by newspapers and websites around the world.
Brian Ascher and Erika Gunderson , both from the Class of 2003, were the main players in the digital-age mystery.
According to the AP story, Gunderson, who works at Bear Stearns Cos., found the Canon camera in a cab on New Year’s Eve. The cabbie didn’t know who had left it behind and – surprise, surprise – offered no help in finding the owner.
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| Brian Ascher and his fiance, Erika Gunderson, pose for a photograph in Standings, an East Village bar which was the last piece in a puzzle to track down the owner of a camera Gunderson found in a taxi. (Photo courtesy of Kathy Willens / Associated Press) |
She brought the camera to her fiancé, Ascher, who – in a display of true Colgate “sticktoitness” — began a relentless quest to find the camera’s owner.
Ascher called the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission and placed ads in lost-and-found sections of Craigslist, all to no avail.
The camera’s 350 photos and two videos showed several adults, an older woman, and three children at tourist spots in the Big Apple and in Florida. The people in the videos spoke with an Irish accent, so Ascher called Canon’s Ireland division to see if anyone had registered the camera. No luck. He posted ads on Irish websites. No luck again.
The New York University law student turned to family members for help and scoured the photos some more. He noticed one photo was taken outside a New York City bar called Standings.
After many phone calls, a few red herrings, and a couple dead-ends, Ascher was able to track down a family that had recently hosted relatives and friends from Ireland.
The end result: The camera was shipped back to owner Alan Murphy, who had moved from Ireland to Sydney, Australia. Needless to say, he was incredibly grateful for the return of the camera that held irreplaceable images of a trip he had planned for years.
“I owe you one,” he wrote to Ascher. “It’s good to know there are some honest people left in the world.”