How a Facebook post helped return a lost disposable camera to its owner after 11 years

Filip Cvetkovic was on the hunt for old film at the back of a tired and worn-down Scarborough thrift store one fall afternoon when he came upon a disposable camera.

Cvetkovic is an amateur photographer who is "fascinated with expired film and the results that come from it."

Filip Cvetkovic was on the hunt for old film at the back a Scarborough thrift store one fall afternoon when he came upon a disposable camera

8 years ago

Duration 1:30

Filip Cvetkovic was on the hunt for old film at the back a Scarborough thrift store one fall afternoon when he came upon a disposable camera

When he went to the cashier, he realized the camera was already used, so he told the clerk he wouldn't pay for it, but still wanted to take it home.

Fast forward half a year later Cvetkovic, 26, had the film developed to find a high school friendship chronicled in pictures.

"Immediately it made me uneasy because it was teenage girls sleeping!" he said from his home in Scarborough. But he quickly realized the photographs were of a group of friends from the early 2000s just having fun.

"You never know what you're going to get on a roll of discovered film."

'Weird Toronto' helps out

In an effort to find out who the camera belonged to, Cvetkovic posted some of the photos to a Facebook group called "Weird Toronto." The reaction was immediate as people started sharing his post.

Within 48 hours, he was contacted by a friend of one of the girls in the picture Nikita De Melo. After connecting on the phone Cvetkovic had found his match.

"In high school, I always had rolls of film and disposable cameras I still love them and I still use them," said De Melo, 26. She describes seeing the photos from her old camera as "a lot of nostalgia;it was wonderful."

Some ofphotos were from a birthday party when De Melo was 15.

"I don't talk to some of the girls now, but mutual friends are going to get a kick out of this," said De Melo, who was attending Etobicoke School of the Arts when the pictures were taken.

She also adds that if she ever sees a roll of film lying around, she'll be developing it after this experience.

Cvetkovic says as much as it made De Melo's day, it made his as well.

Rescued film movement

He's part ofa movement called "rescued film" where people who find old rolls of film develop them, in hopes of finding some treasures or anomalies in the exposure.

He says this film is his first successful find, but that he'll keep looking for more undeveloped treasures.

As for how the disposable camera from Etobicokein 2005 made it to a Scarborough thrift store in 2016 that mystery may never be exposed.

Have you ever been surprised after developing a roll of old film? Share your stories below.

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