June 11 (UPI) -- A camera that was dropped into a British Columbia lake by a camper climbing into a boat was found washed up on the beach a year later and returned to its owner.
Dannelle MacKinnon said she was walking her dog on the beach at Lake Koocanusa, in the South Kootenay region, when she spotted a corroded camera sticking out of the sand.
"I stuck it in my pocket and didn't really think about it again until we got home," MacKinnon told CBC News.
MacKinnon said she had to work to pry open the camera's memory card port, and was relieved to find "it was dry as a bone in there."
She posted about the found camera on Facebook and included some of the photos from the memory card. The post was shared over 1,600 times.
The post came to the attention of a person who recognized a friend, Karen Gagon, from one of the photos.
Gagon contacted MacKinnon and revealed she was the one who had dropped the camera into the lake about a year earlier.
She said the camera had plunged into the water while she was pushing herself up into a small boat.
"It flipped over. I lost everything. It all went to the very bottom," she said.
Gagon said she was overjoyed to get her photos back, especially some pictures of a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
"I never thought I was going to see those again," she said.
MacKinnon said she was happy to be able to reunite Gagon with her photos.
"I know pictures are so important. Those are memories," she said.