A young mother was reunited with her lost camera Saturday, along with the hundreds of photos it contains of her baby girl.
"It had pictures of her first bath, her being born, first hair brushing," Justine Verrault said. "All the firsts. It was really important. It means the world to us to have it back."
And Verrault has internet caf� owner Adam Nickerson to thank. Nickerson was taking a break outside his Langley, B.C., store earlier this week when he saw a man hawking a digital camera.
He was asking for $25. Nickerson said he normally wouldn't have cared, but when he glimpsed some of the camera's photos, he paused.
"I could tell it was pretty important stuff," Nickerson said of the hundreds of baby photos. "Anyone would hate to lose anything like that."
Turns out the camera had been taken after Verrault left her purse in a parking lot. A man returned her pricy purse -- but the camera was gone.
Related: Good Samaritan seeking camera's owners
A few days later, Nickerson bought the camera outside his cafe and proceeded to hit the internet in search of its original owners.
He posted an ad on Craigslist, but when he didn't get any responses he decided to contact CTV News.
Within minutes of Nickerson's story hitting the air on Friday night, Verrault was identified.
"My girlfriends, a couple of them called and say, 'Your camera's on the news! There's pictures of you and Ava!'" the young mother told CTV.
Nickerson met a very grateful Verrault and her daughter on Saturday to hand over the recovered camera.
"So glad I could get it back to you," Nickerson told her.
"There are seldom people I think who would take the time and dedication and be so kind-hearted to get the camera back to its rightful owners," Verrault said.
Ava can't thank Nickerson just yet, but when she gets older her mom says she'll make sure she knows all about him.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
