Detectives’ focus reunites camera, tourist
A scuba diver visiting Boca Raton possibly for the last time was using his GoPro camera to capture precious memories in the waters off the city.
Already in Thomas ‘Cory’ Buckalew’s camera were older photos and videos of his two boys, ages 7 and 9, and his grandfather, who died last year.
So he was devastated when he got off the beach and realized he’d lost his GoPro.
But a grainy picture of a Boy Scout troop logo turned out to be a critical key in reuniting him with souvenirs that meant the world to the Michigan man.
The camera vanished Aug. 16 after Buckalew went scuba diving. He got out of the water, took off his scuba gear and lugged it across the beach.
“I didn’t realize I had lost it until I walked up to the building,” said Buckalew, 45, of Westland, just west of Detroit.
Buckalew used to come to Boca every year but after his grandfather died, he returned one last time to help sell his place.
“There were a lot of memories that I’m not going to get back,” Buckalew said about the camera. “My wife was confident someone would find it.”
As time went on, her hope began to fade.
But on Sept. 22, as Allan Afrow,
73, took a beach stroll along the 4000 block of North Ocean Boulevard with his wife, he spotted the camera wrapped in seaweed.
“I looked down and didn’t realize what it was,” Afrow said. “This was 6 a.m. It was totally dark.”
Instead of keeping it, he called police. He thinks Hurricane Irma may have pushed the camera to shore.
Officer Rosalind Gualtieri headed to the beach to pick it up and with the help of Crime Scene Tech Supervisor Frank Katen, they examined the footage. In it, they found photos from 2013 with a man and children at a pool.
The man was wearing a red T-shirt with Troop #1736 printed on it.
“Through a Google search, that shirt came back to a troop out of Michigan,” said Boca Raton police spokesman Mark Economou. “So we contacted the troop master and right away, he said he knew who that was. It was Thomas Buckalew.”
Police called Buckalew, who said he was thrilled to have those memories back.
“I was absolutely overjoyed. It was one of the coolest things,” Buckalew said. “I just want to thank Boca Raton police and Mr. Afrow for finding it.”
Buckalew tried to thank Afrow by getting a notice in his local paper about what happened and giving him a gift card, but Afrow declined both.
“The fact that you thanked me was sufficient,” Afrow told Buckalew. “I told Cory what goes around, comes around.”
Afrow went on to tell Buckalew about a kidney transplant he got 23 years ago. If it wasn’t for that transplant, Afrow might not be alive. After hearing the story, Buckalew instead donated to an organ donor facility in Detroit in Afrow’s name.
“With what happened in Las Vegas and all the craziness, it’s nice to have a positive story,” Afrow said. “That camera meant a lot to him.”