Fisherman, Stephen Garnett, pulled in a long lost waterlogged camera with photos amazingly still intact, from the bottom of Lake Tahoe. As reported by KTVN Channel 2 News, Stephen’s fishing trip not only netted lake trout, but also treasured memories belonging to Jana LeVitre, who had lost her digital camera in 2011 while sailing in the same lake.

LeVitre, a Utah woman, told The Salt Lake Tribune, that when her waterproof digital camera went overboard into the 150 to 200 feet deep water, "I realized I’d just have to remember [the pictures] in my mind. I never expected to see them again."

That is until last week when Stephen pulled the camera out of the lake’s waters. “I’m lookin’ in the water going, ‘What is that,’ and I thought it was a cell phone. So I pulled it out, no it’s a camera,” Garnett said. The fisherman brought home the Mackinaw he caught as well as the camera and showed it to his wife, Jamie Clark.

A photography hobbyist, Jamie had a special interest in the catch. “It has water in the little viewfinder where you see the pictures and it’s rusty,” Jamie explained. Then when she looked closer she found a functional memory card and excitedly recalled, “Oh my gosh! There’s 1,065 photos on there.”

Knowing the importance of photos, Jamie set out to get the shots, spanning from 2006 to September 2011, back to their rightful owner. She took to Facebook and posted two photos from each year hoping that someone in her network of friends would lead her to the mystery photographer.

She also contacted the Riverton Silverwolves Lacrosse team via Facebook, as one of the photos was of the team. Clark’s tenacity paid off and LeVitre, not a big Facebook user, eventually was urged by her daughter to check out the photos. She was overjoyed when she realized the photos were hers.

Jana and Jamie connected and the memory card is on its way back to a very grateful Jana.

“What are the chances that she could find something, the owners of something like that?” LeVitre told KTVN. “It’s just surreal. I just can’t believe it and to think that it wasn’t found by scuba divers. It was actually reeled in by a guy who thought he caught a fish. That just makes it even cooler.”

Video and more info: KTVN, The Salt Lake Tribune