OK, brace yourselves...
Right?! We received that photo from Stephen Kornacki in Wisconsin recently and, well, we'll just let Stephen tell the story:
Hey all!
Just wanted to share a crazy cool story.
I decided to hike a piece of public land after a fresh prescribed wildfire prairie burn with my 2-year-old daughter. We were in search of deer sheds. We made it to the far corner of the property and stumbled upon a memory card case. Being a photographer myself, I recognized the Think Tank memory card case. The case had clearly been through the fire, but the cards appeared to be okay. Although I doubted they had survived.
But when I got home, not only did the cards load, but it was pretty clear they were impressive trail cam pictures. Not your average person’s trail cam photos. One card was filled with badger photos and videos from January-March of 2019.
Other cards held photos from multiple different cameras in the spring of 2019. The last card had a picture of a person who appeared to be the owner of the cards. (And a shot of him carrying his own Think Tank bag!)
I reached out to the local wildlife biologist in the region who forwarded it to a bunch of other people. One of those people recognized the owner of the cards and reached out to him.
It turns out the guy, Eric Preston, lost the cards 3 years ago. Insane the cards survived for 3 years and two prairie fires!
I own a Think Tank memory card case myself and have newfound trust in it after seeing this! — Stephen Kornacki Stephen connected us with Eric, and this is what he had to say:
I picked up my cards and burned-up Think Tank wallet from Stephen yesterday. After sitting in that field for three years and two prescribed burns, I'm amazed the cards were still readable.
Since 2017 I've been setting up trail cameras, mostly Reconyx Ultrafire XP9, on American Badger dens around south-central Wisconsin. I've had a lot of very interesting activity. If I ever get baby badgers on the camera, I'll be able to make a documentary. Here’s my YouTube channel.
I'm also an amateur nature photographer and have been using Think Tank products for years. I have 3 photo backpacks and many accessories. I love your products. — Eric Preston
That was a stellar piece of detective work on Stephen's part to track Eric down and we're stoked that the cards were in good shape THREE YEARS and TWO FIRES later! Nuts.
Now we just gotta see if legal will let us add "FIREPROOF!" to our Memory Card Wallet descriptions... (not likely).
Here's a photo of Stephen (left) and Eric (right) meeting up for the memory card wallet hand-off. Give them both a follow if you have a chance. And send us the clips of the baby badgers when you get them, Eric!
Thats a great story. I like to hear when people go out of their way to get a lost item back to its proper owner. I’ve done it myself, because I’d want that done for me if I ever lost something. Kudos to Stephen Kornacki who found that ThinkTank memory card wallet, and went to great lengths to find the proper owner and get it returned to him!
Tell me you guys gave him a new card wallet for free just to be cool?!?
What a wonderful story and a great find. Thank you Think Tank for making quality items to preserve our memories captured. I sure to love mine.
Msg the Photo Gods be with them. Talk about Devine intervention. With all the shit going on this beautiful planet. A read worth reading . Thanks for sharing.
Great story which prompts this valuable tip. One of my FunShop clients lost a card during a shoot. Another photographer found it and returned it as my client had written is name and contact info on his card. What a great tip! Even I learned something that day. Now I have my cell number on all my cards.