‘A total blessing’: Lincoln father’s stolen camera is found; thousands of memories recovered

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – It’s a picture-perfect ending.

A Lincoln father found his stolen camera on Friday, recovering thousands of memories.

Jason Lemon accidentally left his Canon camera on a picnic table in Woods Park on Sept. 11 after one of his son’s tennis tournaments.

SEE MORE: ‘My heart sunk’: Camera holding hundreds of memories stolen from Lincoln dad

He had taken it everywhere over the past four years, capturing moments from his son’s high school sports and their trips together.

Ever since then, he’s been searching high and low.

“I walked around the parking lot, the bushes, backsides of the building, around the neighborhoods, asking the good Lord, ‘Come on, show me, give me a clue,'” Lemon said. “And the clue was when I seen Channel 8 pop up on my phone.”

He said the past few weeks have been tough on him.

“It was just sadness,” Lemon said. “You know, you’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours taking thousands and thousands of pictures. You know you can never redo that again, ever.”

He sent out a plea for whoever had the camera, asking them to drop it off anywhere so he could get the pictures back.

Now, that plea has been answered.

A local pawn shop reached out to the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department, which in turn reached out to Channel 8.

A Channel 8 reporter called Lemon to deliver the good news.

“I literally could not believe it,” Lemon said. “I answered the phone. I was expecting something bad. You know, ‘They found it, but it was broke.’ But to be completely intact, SD card, everything? There’s even a baseball roster left in the bag. I just couldn’t be any more thankful for you, the station and the individuals that found it. It’s amazing. A total blessing.”

Lemon went down to the pawn shop and picked up the camera from the workers, who were just as surprised as he was.

A pawn shop employee told him this is once in a blue moon.

“He said, ‘Make sure you go buy a lottery ticket because this doesn’t happen very often,'” Lemon said.

This is a day Lemon said he will never forget.

He has a message for the person who dropped it off:

“Thank you. That’s the way things should work. You do good things, and good things come back to you. Do unto others. So whoever it was, thank you. Greatly appreciate it.”

He’s taking precautions so this doesn’t happen again.

“I’m going to download all of the pictures on my computer, and I’m going to stop on my way home and get a lottery ticket,” Lemon said.