Precious memories lost
A MORAY couple is offering a £100 reward for the safe return of a memory card containing hundreds of cherished family photos.
Amanda and Gary Sim lost treasured images of their son Ryan (2) having fun on his birthday, opening his Christmas presents and playing with his Easter bunnies when their camera went missing in Fochabers last week.
The Elgin family believe the camera may have been stolen from Ryan’s changing bag while he played at Christie’s garden centre playpark on Friday between 1pm and 2pm.
Amanda said the camera is of no real value to them, but the photos of Ryan growing up are priceless, and she is so desperate to get them back she is willing to offer a reward.
“There was nearly 1,900 photos on the camera, and you can’t really replace those,” she said.
“Our computer isn’t working so we weren’t able to back them up.
“It’s photos of Ryan’s Christmas, his second birthday in February, and when we got real Easter bunnies for him to play with.
“It’s all memories, and you always think you can just nip back to the camera and have a look at them all.
“We’re not that worried about the camera, but we really want to get the memory card back with all these photos on it.”
Amanda said she and her husband were taking snaps of Ryan playing at the new playpark at Christie’s, and she believes she laid the camera down on her son’s changing bag while she went to fetch him.
With Ryan getting tired, the couple decided to head back home to Elgin, and Amanda picked up the bag without checking for the camera. She did not notice it was missing until the following day when Ryan was making a fine mess in the kitchen making cakes, and she wanted to take another treasured photo.
The family believe if the camera had been innocently picked up, someone would have handed it in to the police or at the garden centre by now.
The incident has been reported to the police, and the couple made a thorough search at the playpark, while staff at Christie’s also hunted for the camera, without success.
If it was stolen by someone else who visited the centre at that time, Amanda and Gary do not want to press charges but just want the SD memory card returned to them with all the photos intact.
The camera was a black Nikon Coolpix S4200 and was kept in a leather case.
It is worth around £150, but it is the relatively cheap £10 memory card contained inside it which matters to the Sim family.
The playpark was not busy at the time, but if anyone was at Christie’s during Friday lunchtime and even saw someone with a camera fitting the description, they should report it to police.
“We put something on Facebook, and that’s when we offered the £100 reward,” said Amanda.
“The memory card is no use to anyone else but it obviously means a lot to us, and as long as someone hasn’t wiped it we want it back.
“If someone has stolen it and reads this, we just want to say they don’t need to be in trouble for this. Criminally wise we’re not interested in pressing charges, we just wouldn’t go down that route. It’s just the card I’m worried about.”
Anyone who may have the card can hand it in to police, at Christie’s or contact ‘The Northern Scot’ if they have information on its whereabouts.
