WHEN JOHN AND KATHARINE MYERS, AND THEIR two young children, traveled from New Jersey to Madison, Wisconsin, last week they had no inkling of what was about to happen to them. The purpose of their visit to the state capital was to witness the wedding of friends of their’s that was scheduled to take place in the capital building on Saturday.
Following the ceremony, the family stopped out front of the capital to take a family photo. After getting the antsy kids lined up with Mom, John set the camera on a railing and set the self-timer on the shutter before dashing back to join the others in the shot:
As they were about to leave for the reception, John realized that his camera bag wasn’t where he left it and went back into the building to see if anybody had seen it. Alas, nobody could tell him where it was, so he went back outside and then had a thought….maybe his camera caught whoever picked up his bag. The Madison State Journal picks up the story:
“I thought that maybe I caught the person in my shot, and when I checked, there he was.”The photo clearly shows in the background, behind the Myers family, a man dressed in hard-soled dark brown shoes, white socks, cut-off dark blue denim shorts and dark T-shirt and ball cap, going through the bag on the ground at the building entrance.
“I fully expected the Capitol Police to tell me this happens all the time and there was nothing they could do, but as soon as they saw the picture they sent two officers out running and gave out a description,” Myers said. It turns out the man in the photograph resembled a man who frequented the Capitol grounds.
“They were amazing,” Myers said. “They located the guy. He was still carrying the bag.”
When he was stopped by police, near the Capitol at West Washington Avenue, not only did the man have the bag with him, but it contained Myers’ wallet, cash, credit cards and other items.
“I caught the picture, but I was even more amazed they managed to find the person since all they had to go on was his clothing — his face wasn’t in the picture,” Myers told reporters.
The State Journal points out that it was a good thing Myers’ shutter was working because it was discovered during the investigation that the capital’s security camera that was focused on that entrance wasn’t working.
Read the full story HERE.
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