An Indiana woman was given the Christmas present of a lifetime after a camera she lost more than 3,700 miles away in Stonehaven was returned to her by diligent police officer.
Phyllis Williams and her husband Larry embarked on a three week driving tour of Scotland in September 2022.
Accompanied by her sister Pat and her husband Michael, they stopped off at Dunnottar Castle where Phyllis managed to misplace her beloved camera which was full of snaps from their trip, aswell as family occasions.
With no identification or label on it, the family returned to the USA with no hope they would ever see it again.
That was until Phyllis’s brother-in-law, Michael, received an email from Stonehaven community liaison officer PC David Charnley in November asking if anyone in their group had lost a camera.
PC Charnley, using some shrewd detective work, had managed to track down the American family using a licence plate number after they had taken a photo of the rental car they had been using.
Using that number, he tracked the vehicle to a rental agency in Edinburgh who put him in contact with Michael based 3,700 miles away in Cicero, Indiana.
Instead of handing over the camera to Phyllis straight away though, the family decided to keep it as a very special Christmas present.
They wrapped up the camera in it’s original packaging – and when Phyllis opened it up on December 25 she “nearly fainted”.
Indiana family ‘blown away’ by kindness of Stonehaven officer
Speaking to The P&J, her sister Pat was full of praise for PC Charnley for going out his way to safely return it to them.
She said: “We considered the camera to be lost, and we had no idea that it would actually be returned to us.
“We weren’t sure how easily he could get the camera back to us here in Indiana, but officer Charnley was absolutely wonderful.
“We were blown away by how much effort he put in to get the camera back to us.
“He continued to email us back and forth, and arranged for a shipping company to come and pick the camera up.
“From there it made its way to the United States and we were so pleased.
“We didn’t tell our sister-in-law so we could surprise her.
“When she opened it up she almost fainted.”
After PC Charnley’s good deed, the family have vowed to visit Scotland again and thank him in person.
“Scotland is a beautiful country,” said Pat.
“We have a been a few times but we are hoping to come back at some point.
“The next time we are coming back to Stonehaven to visit officer Charnley in person to thank him.”
‘It felt good to do something nice’
Stonehaven-based PC David Charnley said that as a father himself, he would desperately want to see the photos returned.
He said: “There were lots of family photos on it, it pulled on my heart strings a little bit.
“It wasn’t so much about the camera, it was the photos as well.
“There were family occasions and kids photos.
“Being a father myself, I would have wanted it back myself if it was my camera.
“Even if they didn’t want the camera back I would’ve happily transferred the photos – that was the most important part.
“The photos of Phyllis opening the camera up again were absolutely brilliant.
“It felt good to do something nice.”
“It felt good to do something nice.”
