UPDATE: A Kelowna family has contacted Global News and says the GoPro camera found in Mill Creek belongs to their son, who is currently out-of-country.
They are excited the camera was recovered, along with movies that were taken more than five-years-ago.
Global News is looking to connect with the GoPro owner Friday.
ORIGINAL STORY:
It’s not something construction workers see every day.
“I’ve never found anything like this before,” said worker Calvin Van Buskirk.
While doing some work near Mill Creek in April, though, Van Buskirk stumbled upon a GoPro camera.
“I was walking along, checking out the progress of the channel development,” he said, “and I came across a GoPro camera.”
When doing flood mitigation work and expanding culverts, Van Buskirk says “quite often we will find stuff like old bottles and damaged bicycles.”
WATCH BELOW (Aired April 22, 2019): Video catches woman dumping 7 puppies behind a store in California
Van Buskirk gave the camera to Global News to see if there was any footage on it – and to see if we could return it to its owner.
“I would be kind of curious to see if we can find the owner,” he said, “and where they may have lost it and how it managed to make its way down here.”
The casing for the camera was covered in dirt, and it was clear the GoPro had been under water as well. However, there was plenty of footage left on the camera.
WATCH BELOW (Aired April 9, 2019): Global camera captures video of alleged border-jumper
Some of the clips included vacation videos, footage of a hockey practice and clips from a concert. But the last video on the camera was of two men cliff jumping at Mill Creek.
Upon further examination, the date stamps on the last videos indicated they were all taken in 2014, which means the camera had been missing for at least five years.
Over that time, the camera would have likely been carried by the river and buried in the silt during a flood.
The camera, case and memory card are now at the Global Okanagan station in Kelowna.