By Marc Smith

What would you do if you found a $600+ camcorder on the street? I am guessing you’d look both ways and pocket it. I think that’s what most people would do in fact.

Not Josh Rimer and Craig Weckerle. They instead made a YouTube video hoping to find the owner and return the camera with it’s contents safe and sound.

Here’s the story and the time-line of how it all came to pass:

Feb 12th it’s the Opening Ceremonies and Josh and Craig decide to try to get into LiveCity Yaletown. As they are walking towards David Lam Park Craig spots a camcorder on the ground. They pick it up and wonder how they are going to find the owner.

Josh a YouTube star with over 100 + videos to his credit decide that a YouTube video reenacting the camcorder discovery+ highlighting some of the camcorders footage may be the solution to finding the owners.

Feb 20th Josh and Craig make the Video including a “dramatized” reenactment of the discovery. Here’s the video.

So now that the video has been made how can they get the word out? Both Josh and Craig have extensive Twitter and Facebook connections so they immediately start to post the video through both platforms asking for help to spread the word to find the owners.

Feb 27th Joseph Ruttle of The Province newspaper picks up the story and runs an article in the Provinces 2010 News Blog. As of today it’s had over 9000 views.

March 1st apparently someone at King TV in Seattle heard about the story and the search and a segment aired on King’s newscast which triggered the Motor Vehicle Dept to search for the owners via the shown WA license plate.

March 2nd Josh get an email from the OWNER! It turns out they are a family living in Seattle and they not only had lost their camcorder but also their tickets to the Opening Ceremonies. The tickets were replaceable but the camcorder had the start of their Olympic trip recorded along with the last images of the owners Father captured on film. He has since passed away and the footage had not yet been downloaded and saved. Josh and the owner are currently working out a way to get the camcorder back to it’s rightful owner.

The story of these two honest Vancouverites is starting to make the international news as well.

Josh was also contacted by two Seattle based news organizations today that want to do a story on the video, Josh and Craig and the return of the camera. Could a story have a better ending than this? Stay tuned I’ll update this post with any footage of the interviews I can get.

The Olympics may be over but the best part of Canada is still alive and proud. Our honesty and our neighbourly ways. Way to go Josh and Craig.

Marc Smith is Vancouver based event planner and will be reporting daily on various events happening around Vancouver. http://twitter.com/amuseconsulting