Thanks to the power of the internet and the help of hundreds of strangers an American woman travelling in Iceland was able to recover a priceless necklace she had lost at a souvenir shop in downtown Reykjavík.
Asking Facebook for help can work!
On Monday afternoon a local girl, Hera Björk Þormóðsdóttir, who works at a souvenir shop in downtown Reykjavík posted a couple of photos on Facebook, asking for help in locating the owner of a necklace the staff had found in the store. The post, which was both in Icelandic and English immediately went viral:
Hello, I work in a tourist shop on Laugavegur, Reykjavík, Iceland. We found this necklace in the shop and it looks like a very special necklace so I want to try and use Facebook and other social media to find the owner.
Please share this!
Hera did not have much to go on, other than the dates of birth and death of the parents of the owner of the necklace. But within only a few hours the post had been shared several hundred times, ultimately climbing to over 1,700 shares. Dozens of locals and foreign nationals with ties to Iceland, had also commented on the post in an effort to help figure out who the owner was.
Crowd-sourced investigation and search for the owner
The Facebook thread on Hera's post quickly became an amazing example of crowd-sourced investigative work. By the evening of Monday, just a few hours after Hera had posted her message, people had been able to identify the owner of the necklace and locate her on Facebook.
Read more: Tourism companies chip in to give US teen with Cystic Fibrosis her dream vacation in Iceland
It turned out the owner was an American woman, Ashley Fusco. Ashley, who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, was understandably overwhelmed with gratitude when she discovered her necklace had been found:
You all found me!!!! I can't thank you all enough. I lost both of my parents in a car accident when I was in college and the necklace was their fingerprints. I am SO happy it's safe and I appreciate all of you for helping to locate me.
Thanks to the power of the internet and the help of hundreds of strangers an American woman travelling in Iceland was able to recover a priceless necklace she had lost at a souvenir shop in downtown Reykjavík.
Asking Facebook for help can work!
On Monday afternoon a local girl, Hera Björk Þormóðsdóttir, who works at a souvenir shop in downtown Reykjavík posted a couple of photos on Facebook, asking for help in locating the owner of a necklace the staff had found in the store. The post, which was both in Icelandic and English immediately went viral:
Hello, I work in a tourist shop on Laugavegur, Reykjavík, Iceland. We found this necklace in the shop and it looks like a very special necklace so I want to try and use Facebook and other social media to find the owner.
Please share this!
Hera did not have much to go on, other than the dates of birth and death of the parents of the owner of the necklace. But within only a few hours the post had been shared several hundred times, ultimately climbing to over 1,700 shares. Dozens of locals and foreign nationals with ties to Iceland, had also commented on the post in an effort to help figure out who the owner was.
Crowd-sourced investigation and search for the owner
The Facebook thread on Hera's post quickly became an amazing example of crowd-sourced investigative work. By the evening of Monday, just a few hours after Hera had posted her message, people had been able to identify the owner of the necklace and locate her on Facebook.
Read more: Tourism companies chip in to give US teen with Cystic Fibrosis her dream vacation in Iceland
It turned out the owner was an American woman, Ashley Fusco. Ashley, who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, was understandably overwhelmed with gratitude when she discovered her necklace had been found:
You all found me!!!! I can't thank you all enough. I lost both of my parents in a car accident when I was in college and the necklace was their fingerprints. I am SO happy it's safe and I appreciate all of you for helping to locate me.
