This is AMAZING! I inadvertantly left my Sony Mavica digital still camera at “Venice Mountain” last week after me and John Long (vivalargo) spent time there doing some crazy drops and cool lines. I didn’t realize I’d left it there 'till I got home, and so I figured I’d never see it again.
I never took the time to put name and contact info on the camera, and the only pictures on it were a few shots of my muni and 36er. Now this is the amazing part! A guy who just so happens to live very near me also happened to be at Venice Mountain that day (25 miles from our home area) and found my camera. So how did he know it was mine?
Well, turns out he’s an avid MTBer, and noticed that the picture on the camera showed my 36-er with a horn installed under the seat…that made him remember that he was ALSO in the SAME bike shop as me WHEN I BOUGHT THAT HORN!!! So that rang a bell (pun intended) and so he called the bike shop and asked if anyone there knew a guy with a big-wheeled uni that had a horn on it.
At first they said no, but then they remembered they had indeed seen me because I had bought that horn there just recently. They ALSO told the guy who found my camera that I was a piano tuner–how they knew that I’m not sure. So now the guy does a google search for piano tuners in Lomita (that’s my city) and found my phone number!
So earlier today I get this voice mail saying “hi, I’m looking for a piano tuner that also rides a unicycle…no joke, I think I found something you may have lost”.
UNBELIEVABLE I thought! So I called the guy back and sure enough, he’d found it, intact and just like I’d left it! So I went over to his house, where I met him and his wife…the nicest, coolest couple I’ve met in a loing time.
We had a few good laughs at how amazing this was, I got my camera back and made a new friend! I had totally written off ever getting it back. Awesome!
That’s a great story. You should recreate that in a uni-geezer video. You could have a lot of fun with it. You are still doing uni-geezer videos, right? It’s been awhile, I might have to head back into rehab.
Haha good idea. Yeah, but for the next one I really wanted to do more riding and stuff I haven’t yet done, plus I have some cool bits to throw in. But as someone suggested, no more “shop rides” haha!
I keep thinking about just how remarkable this all is! Here I am 25 miles away from home and I leave my camera bag, with camera inside…just forgot it was lying on the grass 15 feet away, so…
#1 Complete stranger finds the camera, looks around and can’t find owner. #2 Looks inside can’t find any contact info #3 Turns camera on (battery almost dead and NO charger) and looks to see if ther are any pictures that might provide a clue #4 only pictures are of unicycles, nothing else #5 Then the first clue: He sees that one uni has a horn mounted under the saddle (I replaced that with the current brake only a day after that pic was taken!) #6 This total stranger then realizes that he may have been in the very SAME bike shop the same day that I was there buying that very horn! #7 Said bike shop is 25 miles away from where he found my camera, and he also lives in the same area as me! #8 He called this bike shop to ask if anyone knows a guy who brought in a big wheeled uni to install a horn on it. #9 “YES, he’s a piano tuner” was the reply! #10 This total stranger, goes online and searches google for a piano tuner in my city and finds “acurate Piano service” That’s me and I’m the first one that comes up alphabetically. #11 He calls the number but gets my voice mail so he leaves the message: “Hello, I’m looking for a piano tuner that also rides a unicycle; I found something that may belong to you”.
OMG! Out of the kindness of this man’s heart, and his tenacity and determination, he found the rightful owner! If there hadn’t been a pic of that 36-er with the horn, he never would have found me!
I just don’t think something like this happens every day, let alone more than once in a lifetime! I still can’t quite believe it!
