Had a great time but would like camera back

I especially enjoyed hearing, not just “Bless You”, but “God Bless You”, after anyone sneezed. Your churches are apparently as big as your theaters, and gospel was sung to us with our lunch. This tells me that the values of the people of Branson are basically in place.

This is also why I am so sad and disappointed that my camera was stolen from us on Saturday night. We had taken the boys to McGuffy’s after the “Cirque” show (amazing by the way), to do some karaoke. We all enjoy singing and who can help getting in a music frame of mind in your town.

The people at McGuffy’s were warm, welcoming and friendly, even though we don’t sing country. We enjoyed them, every one, and had a great time. However, in an air-headed moment, I either set my camera down on the table or left it in the ladie’s room and the next time I reached for it to snap a pic of my youngest up there singing, my camera was gone.

Now I choose to believe that someone out there succumbed to an impulsive moment of weakness, or maybe is just down on their luck right now – saw that pretty camera sitting there unattended – scooped it up and hurried off. I know they didn’t really know what they are taking. It is a Nikon CoolPix5700 digital camera. It is a Japanese camera and the electronic instructions located inside the camera are mostly in symbols, which you will probably not be able to understand without the owner’s guide – which I still have – and is 179 pages long. It’s a complicated camera. You don’t have the computer software necessary to run the program through your computer or printer so that you can retrieve the information from the camera. You also don’t have the battery charger. I am notifying Nikon so that any requests for this information from them will send up a red flag. The camera is a couple of years old and has a couple of glitchy things that I know how to compensate for, but you probably don’t. The battery compartment hinged door is broken and pops off when opened, so it is unlikely you could even pawn it for much. Even so, it will cost me several hundred dollars to replace all that you took with new equipment.

What you took however, that I can never replace for any amount of money, is a gigabyte of memory full of trip photos for our family, our Boy Scout Troop and our Venture Crew. You see, I am a Scoutmaster with a photo habit and every Fall I put together a video using my photos from each year, and give a copy to each member of our group for Christmas. This year, if you check the memory, you will see that we have been many many places, and most of the pictures are of kids doing awesome stuff like rock climbing in the Rockies, that they will not now have any photos of. With my memory, I don’t even remember where I’ve been without the photo albums to look back through. I am far more sad about the loss of those memories, than I am about the loss of the camera. When I told our Troop members at our meeting last night about the loss, many were upset as they had been counting on the photo copies of themselves that I make annually. I also put together a slide show for each boy who makes Eagle Scout with our troop, of all his great Scouting moments. You have stolen a year’s worth of those moments.

However, if the person who picked up that camera is as honest as I think they are, and did indeed succumb to a momentary weakness, then please at least send the memory card back to me. If you want to keep the card, then download the card onto several discs and mail them to me. If you return the whole thing, I will consider it “Found” property and mail you a reward more than sufficient to pay for your postage.

Whatever you send back to me, I will not have it dusted for finger prints or look for the sender in any way. I will simply thank God that you “found” my memories and returned them to our troop. And if you trust me enough to send me your address, I’ll even mail you that reward. Scout’s Honor.

I would appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, if the person that receives this e-mail, will see that it gets posted not only on the internet, but published in every newspaper in Branson. Please help us retrieve our lost year.

Thank you most sincerely,

Jodie L. Rea, 228 Strangeway Ave., Lodi, WI 53555

Editors Note: Yet another reason to download pictures from camera on a regular basis.