Lost at sea, or so he thought. A Westland father never imagined he'd get back priceless video from a family vacation after his GoPro disappeared during a scuba dive, but thanks to the hard work of strangers, he has it back.
Cory Buckalew remembers feeling shattered when he realized his GoPro was lost in the ocean during an August vacation to Boca Raton with his wife and two boys.
He still had cell phone photos but didn't have the video of his son's first scuba dive.
"The video him of scuba diving first time in the water really, you don't get a second chance to do that," he said. "It was really upsetting for me to lose that."
Five weeks went by but what he didn't know was that his GoPro had washed ashore a few miles north. Allan Afrow was on a predawn walk with his wife when he came across it.
"I was illuminating the flash light in the sand, high tide at that point," Afrow said. "The seaweed was at a high level and I happened to notice it in the seaweed."
Afrow and his wife took it to the Boca Raton police department right away.
Police searched hard to find out who the owner of the GoPro was. They searched through the photos and found a big clue, a picture Buckalew had accidentally taken of himself with a boy scout troop logo on the shirt.
Cops googled it and contacted the scout master, and that's when they found out it was Buckalew's GoPro. All of his video was fine and still on the camera.
We're told the GoPro is in the mail and he should be getting it any day now. Buckalew offered to give Afrow a reward or dinner, but he said that wasn't necessary. Instead, he donated money to an organ donation charity.
