Photographer's $3,600 Camera Accidentally Donated To An Arizona GoodWill & Has Incredible Journey Back Home

Kelsie Lee spent a lot of money on an expensive camera just for her mom to accidentally drop it off at GoodWill. Thus, an arduous journey ensued to get the camera and all her precious photos with it.

Lee posted the story to the video-sharing app TikTok. She teared up in the initial viral video as she explained what happened. “I’ve been crying for a minute because my mom accidentally dropped off my brand new camera that I saved up my entire life to buy,” she said

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She clarified that the camera was a Canon EOS R6 Mark II, which retails at $2,800 for the camera alone and a whopping $3,600 to get it with a lens. Shockingly, a couple bought it for just $70! Though, that isn’t the main reason why she was so upset.

“It has an SD card in it which is the main reason that I’m crying. It has like a whole collection of memories from when I first got the camera to now,” she said.

The photographer went on a long journey to find the camera after it was bought at GoodWill.

In a follow-up video, she explained how it exactly ended up at GoodWill in the first place. Before a father-daughter outing to dinner, she took photos of her family. She didn’t want to bring her camera into the restaurant to risk damage or leave it in the car to risk theft. So, she opted to tuck it away in a cardboard box in the trunk of her mom’s car—who didn’t go out to dinner with them. 

“It took me a day or two to actually remember to go and grab my camera, and when I went out to get it, the cardboard box was gone,” she said.

Instead, her mom had dropped it off at GoodWill! Though, she clarified in the video that she didn’t know the camera was in there. Kelsie was so close to getting her camera back too! But just one hour before she went to try to retrieve it, a photographer couple had picked it up.

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Fortunately, her video made an impact, and the couple who bought the camera came forward.

Vanessa and Mike saw the video after they purchased her camera. They’re a married couple who take stunning photos of landscapes and nature. On top of their talents, they also have a big heart! 

Not only did they return it to her immediately after seeing her video, but they drove two hours to her because she was just recovering from gallbladder surgery. They wiped the SD card on purchasing the camera, but Kelsie shared that she sent it to someone to recover her precious memories! 

People shared their words of support in the comments.

“So happy for you, all of you!! I couldn’t imagine how you felt and glad you found it!” one person wrote.

“There’s good people [i]n the world!” another added.

Kelsie’s story proves that silly mistakes with big consequences can be easily rectified if they fall into good people’s hands. Hopefully, this video will inspire more to be willing to choose kindness over financial gain.

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Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. His writing covers entertainment, news and human interest stories.