The Good Samaritan by Claudia Sonea

Believe it or not, there are still honest people in the world. Alan Murphy, an insurance underwriter, who lives in Australia, discovered this secret on a trip to his friends from New York. As a trouble through which many tourists went, he also forgot something, unfortunately it was a $500 digital camera and he wasn't expecting to ever see it again. However, he had a marvelous surprise. Murphy's destiny is somewhat connected to that of Brian Ascher, a 26-year-old law student at New York University. Brian's fiancée, Erika Gunderson, who finances for Bear Stearns Cos., found in a taxi on his way back home a Canon digital camera and because the taxi driver did not remembered anything about the previous clients, she decided to take it home. Don't be surprised, most people would take it home; still she did it without any intention of keeping it, but to find the rightful owner. At this point Brian steps in. Due to his winter break, the honest future lawyer (a unique combination) had enough time to take the trouble to search for the owner. In his quest, he used as evidence the 350 pictures and the two videos on the camera. Also, he reported a matching missing camera to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission, found on 31 December. To point out that not everyone is so honest, at his ads in lost-and-found sections of Craigslist, the Brazilian couple that answered said they lost a camera in October, but unfortunately they weren't so lucky to find it. The entire break he spent it tracing the camera's owner, even his mother Nancy and his sister Emily Rann got involved. Emily noticed on the camera pictures of a doorman of Radisson Hotel and she managed to persuade an employee to give her an email address. However, it wasn't the owner. According to the saying, third time is a charm, Brian succeeded to trace the path of the owner up to Standings, a bar near Burp Castle, and from there to Playwrights, a bar in New York. There was Sarah Casey and her sister Jeanette, who hosted relatives and friends from Ireland. Among them was none other then Murphy, an Irish moved to Australia, who just discovered that people can still be decent and honest. Bravo to Brian, the Good Samaritan!

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080126/ap_on_hi_te/missing_camera_quest;_ylt=Arl1GgkozHDEEc1_GBeuHGOs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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