Las Vegas family seeks owner of lost camera full of family photos
A father and daughter are trying to reunite a family with their lost camera, and social media could lead to it being returned to them.
On a Sunday morning around the first of December, Richard Sartor was on his way to a meeting of a car club, which meets at a shopping center near Rainbow Boulevard and Rancho Drive. He saw a car broken down nearby.
He continued to the club meeting, but when no one was there when he arrived, he headed home.
“I still noticed the car broke down, so I pulled up behind this younger guy to help him out,” Sartor said.
He found out the younger man was headed to the same meeting as Sartor when his vehicle broke down. The two men looked under the hood and decided the transmission fluid was low.
“I suggested an auto parts store on Rancho about a mile and a half from where the young man’s car was to get supplies,” Sartor said.
The two men hopped in Sartor’s car, went to the auto parts store and returned to fixed the car. Sartor and the younger man, who he believed was named Ryan, then parted ways.
Sartor rushed back to his house to pick up his wife for church, but when she got into the car she noticed a camera in the back seat.
Sartor said, “My wife got in the car and asked me ‘whose camera is this?’ ”
He assumed the young man left the camera in his car.
Sartor went back to the auto parts store, but the shop said the young man must have paid in cash because there was only a sale recorded and no personal information was available.
Wanting to find clues in hopes of returning the camera, Sartor looked through some of the photos to see if there were any indicators to help locate the young man. The pictures on the camera appear to show him with his family and a newborn baby.
Sartor believes the young man lives north of Ann Road in Las Vegas, an area close to where the car club meeting was scheduled.
Car clubs usually are inactive during winter months, which is why Sartor believes it will be hard to find the man until shows pick up when the weather is warmer.
Sartor turned to his daughter for help.
Gina Sartor, 45, a Michigan resident, was in town visiting family.
“Well, my daughter is way beyond me technically using a computer and that kind of thing,” Richard Sartor said.
Gina Sartor started out by checking the newspaper for lost and found ads, even looking for birth announcements around the same time, to no avail.
“We can’t identify a name on the hospital bracelet in the photos. There are no pictures of the outside of the hospital, but there is a picture of the baby with the mom and the newborn baby with the father,” Gina Sartor said.
After her other attempts failed, she tried to work her computer magic.
“I figured social media was the best way to reach the widest audience,” Gina Sartor said. “I figured somebody will tell somebody, making it more likely to be seen by someone who knows the parents of the newborn.”
She posted a message on the Review-Journal’s Facebook page on Dec. 28 in hopes the newspaper could help.
The Sartors said pictures of a newborn son are too important to lose.
“It’s a challenge to reunite this family with their photos and I wanted to confirm my dad’s faith in me navigating the Internet,” Gina Sartor said.
The Sartors are asking intrepid followers on social media to see if they recognize this family. If you have a lead or tip, send a message to lostfamilycamera@gmail.com.
Contact Kayla Heffner at kheffner@reviewjournal.com. Follow Kayla on Twitter: @KaylaHeffner1
