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PROVO – Thrift stores may be full of unforgettable deals, but a man never expected his purchase to include priceless pictures belonging to somebody else's family.
Gordon Mieure said the photos — including those just after the birth of a baby girl believed to be named "Fernanda" — were stored on a USB drive tucked away inside a laptop bag he purchased at Deseret Industries.
"This is the first time we've found anything like this," Mieure shrugged during an interview Friday.
Different folders on the USB drive contained names like "Disney 2017" and included images that appeared to be from multiple family vacations.
They also contained pictures taken during pregnancy and after the baby girl had grown into a toddler.
Mieure said it appeared some of the folders, including the one for the birth photos, were created back in 2012 and 2013, meaning the child could be much older today.
"I mean, you only get one chance at that," said Mieure of the birth pictures. "Those were the ones that got me."
He said he couldn't imagine if he had lost similar pictures of his only daughter, now a teenager.
DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS COUPLE? A Provo man found an apparently long-lost USB drive full of family photos, including those taken around the birth of a baby girl. Story @KSL5TV at 10p #KSLTV#Utahpic.twitter.com/cIQS8QmtDD
— Andrew Adams (@AndrewAdamsKSL) March 20, 2021
"She was our miracle baby — we didn't think we'd have our own kids," Mieure said. "These are the memories you make and you have the pictures to remember all this by and you hate to lose those."
Along with the USB drive, Mieure said he found a key with a Brent Brown Toyota tag on it that included information about a white 2016 Toyota Corolla.
He acknowledged it was possible the key, the pictures and the laptop bag all belonged to different people, but he doubted it.
Mieure's Facebook post about the discovery already had more than 1,300 shares but had yielded no clues as of late Friday.
He hoped anyone who recognizes the family would contact him via email at gordonmieure@protonmail.com.
"It did make me feel a little emotional, just to think they don't have these pictures right now," Mieure said.
