Watch: Diver finds woman with camera lost in lake for almost 10 years

June 3 (UPI) – A technical rescue diver in Virginia found a camera at the bottom of a Virginia lake and was able to track it down with the woman who had lost it nearly a decade earlier.
Lilly Potts was participating in a rescue training exercise with the Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad when she found the camera covered in algae at the bottom of Claytor Lake.
“I happened to walk past a camera, and decided to pick it up and open it up and the SD card was still in there,” Potts told WDBJ-TV.
Potts enlisted the help of a friend who was able to retrieve around 300 photos from the card.
“There was so much sentimental value in all the photos, like there was a wedding on it, two weddings on it, a baby being born, and I know if I lost those kind of photos I would like them back. “said Potts.
Potts posted pictures of the SD card to Facebook in hopes of finding the owner, and one of Potts’ former teachers was able to identify the owner of the camera as Brenda Dalton, who works for the husband of the teacher.
Dalton said she believed some of the footage was lost forever when she dropped her camera in the lake nearly a decade earlier.
“And they’re as clear as the day I took them. You can’t – you can’t tell they were underwater for years. There’s nothing wrong with the photos that she was able to recover; they are perfect, “said Dalton.
Potts said she was glad she was able to facilitate the reunion.
“I was so happy that it represented the world to her, and it was so touching and emotional to be able to do this for someone,” said Potts.