Good Samaritans try to track down owner of camera

What would you do if you found a camera at a beach on Sentosa?

For the Bickhams, it was an easy decision: They would embark on a search to find its owner.

Mr Alan Bickham's two teenage children had spotted the GoPro on a Siloso Beach sign at about 4.50pm on Saturday (Jan 16) while rollerblading on the beach front.

The pair – 16-year-old Ryan and 18-year-old Melanie – continued with their activities before returning to check if the camera had been claimed.

It had not, and the teenagers sat around and waited until about 5.45pm for the owners to return.

"By then, everyone else on the beach had left", said Mr Bickham, a house husband.

In the end, the youngsters decided to take it back to their father.

Mr Alan Bickham (in light blue) with his three children, Ryan, 16, Melanie, 18, and Alison, 20. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BICKHAM FAMILY

"They were quite adamant about finding the owners," he said, adding that he was proud that they were so honest.

"If we take it down to the police station, it would just go into lost-and-found. We wanted to be proactive," he said.

The Bickhams looked through the photos in the camera and found snaps of a family taking the cable car, out at Silo Beach, hanging around town and at Legoland.

Another photo from the camera that was found at Siloso Beach.

But there were no clues to the owner's identity or address.

The time stamp on the photos and the locations suggested that they were tourists, he said.

"As my wife said, if you lost your camera, you would think, 'That's it'.

"If you were to go down to the police station to make a report, that would be half a day while you are on holiday."

Mr Bickham said they just wanted to pay it forward.

He added: "It's like the recent The New Paper story of the boy who returned $30,000."

The father-of-three said he contacted the guest relations at Siloso Beach but was told that no one had made a report about a missing camera.

He also reached out to The New Paper and put up a post on Facebook with two photos taken from the camera.

"If nothing else, we'll make a police report," said Mr Bickham, who is a permanent resident.

His wife and three children are Singaporeans.

The family spends a lot of time in the Sentosa area as they have a boat at ONE°15 Marina Club.