Owners of mystery baby photos identified
PORTLAND, Ore. – The families whose cameras were stolen six years ago with precious baby pictures inside have been identified.
The families saw pictures of their babies on the news and through KATU's Facebook page and wrote in to say: "Those are our babies!"
The two stolen cameras had been sitting in evidence at the Washington County Sheriff's Office for six years – unclaimed.
The sheriff's office was getting ready to turn the unclaimed stolen property over to the state for auction or destruction. But it wanted to make one last try at finding the owners of the two cameras.
KATU News showed the images on the news and on its Facebook page – and bingo! Success! Owners found.
The key for one of the families was one picture showing white kitchen counter tile with a pink stripe.
"And I saw a picture of a baby sitting on a counter," said the baby's mother Friday. "I didn't really notice the baby at first, I noticed the tile. And I thought, wow, that's just like my tile and somebody else has the same tile. And I looked at it more carefully, and I was like, that's my baby."
The baby, Gracie, is now 6 years old and in first grade.
Mom said someone stole the camera out of her baby bag in her car parked in her driveway six years ago and she never thought she would get them back.
She's already called the sheriff's office and plans to meet with them on Monday so she can prove to them it's her camera and her baby.
Other pictures from the second family show Adriana Watts. A family friend recognized Adriana's mother in the pictures and called her, telling her to check out the news.
"It was really surprising, it was exciting to get those pictures back," said Melanie Watts. "I mean those were really, really precious pictures. Brand new, first couple of days when she was born and so it was really, really great news. It was really exciting."
The Watts family said the camera was stolen out of their car parked in their driveway in Tigard shortly after their daughter was born.
Great ending to this story. Glad it worked out for them! Good job, Washington County SO for sticking with it and getting the camera returned.
Big close up of baby on the counter, little pink stripe on tile, I didn't see my own baby, What? weird
 @Pvpbw Yes, very. It creeps me out that she would notice the countertop before her own adorable child!
@gofigure@Pvpbw
To those of you who are insensitive enough to judge a mother  based on a couple sentences....you really need to grow up.  This woman is MY mother too, and she is the most dedicated and loving mom you could ever meet.  Her entire life has been dedicated to her children - all four of us.  Focusing in on her comment about the tile and questioning who she is as a mother?  I can't tell you how insane that is! She happened across a picture on KATUs Facebook page at 10:00 at night.  Show of hands how many people would expect to see a six year old picture of their child on the news completely unexpectedly???!  It was a shock...and soooo surreal. For an instant she noticed that kitchen and thought it looked like hers....just for an instant.  After the initial shock of course she recognized Gracie. It probably took her all of about two seconds to process it and realize that was actually HER baby on the news.  It wasnt a matter of her not recognizing Grace - you can't miss that gorgeous face.  We would all know it anywhere! Â
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This was meant to be a sweet story and it is one that really means a lot to my family. In the future, please remember that these are real people that you are talking about before posting such hurtful comments.Â
I love stories like this. ThankYou KATU.
I <3 happy endings!
 @washcomom Plenty of Chinese massage parlors offer them. There's no trouble in finding them.
"I didn't really notice the baby at first, I noticed the tile. And I thought, wow, that's just like my tile and somebody else has the same tile. And I looked at it more carefully, and I was like, that's my baby."Â Wow, didn't recognize her own baby, but remembered a tile? SMH
@Hacker_i33
To those of you who are insensitive enough to judge a mother  based on a couple sentences....you really need to grow up.  This woman is MY mother too, and she is the most dedicated and loving mom you could ever meet.  Her entire life has been dedicated to her children - all four of us.  Focusing in on her comment about the tile and questioning who she is as a mother?  I can't tell you how insane that is! She happened across a picture on KATUs Facebook page at 10:00 at night.  Show of hands how many people would expect to see a six year old picture of their child on the news completely unexpectedly???!  It was a shock...and soooo surreal. For an instant she noticed that kitchen and thought it looked like hers....just for an instant.  After the initial shock of course she recognized Gracie. It probably took her all of about two seconds to process it and realize that was actually HER baby on the news.  It wasnt a matter of her not recognizing Grace - you can't miss that gorgeous face.  We would all know it anywhere! Â
Â
This was meant to be a sweet story and it is one that really means a lot to my family. In the future, please remember that these are real people that you are talking about before posting such hurtful comments.Â
 @Hacker_i33 Don't be too hard on her. Babies change VERY quickly.
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When the photographer put together our daughter's baby panel, I said to my wife, "That first picture isn't our daughter." She thought I was nuts. Finally, she convinced me that she was right -- the three month photo was indeed our daughter. But she had changed so much between the three and six month photos that I just didn't recognize the first picture!
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It seems intuitive that you'd remember your baby from when she was first born, but after that many years . . . it may not be obvious at a first glance.
Gross.
 @on shing dao ???? What?
 @Old29  @on shing dao Don't feed the troll.....
 @shek069 In 15 years you will be complaining about how kids are brats and their parents don't raise them right considering you do it already. Does that include this family?
Nice work KATU. Thanks for the effort you put into this.
Very cool. I'd be pretty happy to have irreplaceable baby pictures back, too.
Why did this take 6 years? These photos could have been publicized at any time, although the WCSO certainly did some nice work. Cute babies!
 @nostromo Ya those kids are probably real brats now.
Wow, lets hope a janitor doesn't throw the cameras and pictures away on Saturday night graveyard!
All RIIIIGHT! Â Way to go, WCSO LEOs..! Â Â What a great ending to this story..! Â :-)
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Well, to the (thankfully, VERY few) people who griped on this forum that this effort was "a waste of police time & taxpayer money" and so on ... Maybe next time, it might be YOU who has something stolen that's maybe not worth a lot of money to anyone else, but is priceless to you...  If you get really lucky, you might have a police dept that goes out of its way to try to find you so they can return your property to you.  Try being a little more compassionate... We all want to see our tax money spent carefully, but some things, you do just because they're the right thing to do.
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Thanks for running this story, KATU..! Â :-)
@margay1 Well Said margay1.Well Said!!!
 @margay1 Agreed! Our officers aren't just crime fighters. They are a part of our community. When I was a very young mom, I had to leave my couple of bags of groceries in my car while I carried my baby inside. I should have locked the car but didn't. When I got my son safely settled in his crib I went out to grab the groceries and of course they were gone. Those were the days when every penny I had was carefully budgeted. I called the police and they came and took the report. An hour later the two officers returned with bags of food, diapers, formula, and a teddy bear for my son. It made a HUGE impact on me, and I've supported both them and the Sunshine Division ever since. It's people caring for each other. Helping each other when we can. I know you get that, Margay. Sadly, too many people don't.
 @margay1 Agreed. The cops get a bad rap. They do a dangerous job with little or no thanks. Everyone criticizes them for how things are handled but few are willing to step up and walk a mile in their shoes. There are a lot of instances like what you described but if it makes the news most people say it isn't newsworthy. WCSO rocks!Â
@Lips @margay1 To Bad we only hear about the bad cops and Not enough good that the Good ones do. Thanks for sharing Lips.
You sure said it all Margay1, this is actually a great story and should make all involved feel better when they did the right thing! I would rather LE do things like this at times, to help out.