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Tarpon Springs teen seeks owner of home movies

 
Published March 29, 2013

TARPON SPRINGS — Under a heap of Teddy bears, T-shirts and sneakers, the teenage filmmaker found a dusty 8 millimeter camcorder.

Christopher Worthington, 15, bought the camera a couple of weeks ago for $3 at the Shepherd Center of Tarpon Springs, a thrift store where he volunteers. It looks cool, he thought. It would make a good prop in my next YouTube video.

But inside the camera bag, the Tarpon Springs High School student discovered cassette tapes that are someone's date-stamped home movies: a birth from 1997, a baptism from 1999, a raven-haired woman tickling a wide-eyed baby.

'I thought, 'If these belonged to my mom, she'd definitely want them back,' " he said. "So, now we're looking for the parents."

The best way? A social media campaign, he said.

Christopher's father, Jon, uploaded part of the footage to YouTube in hopes it would go viral. Father and son removed the sounds of people talking, fearing that was too intimate, and added a self-recorded Christmas song to the nearly four-minute montage: What Child Is This? — naturally.

A commenter who viewed the video wrote: "Awwww what a nice thing ur son did to try to find the owner of these priceless memories I sure hope he finds the owner."

After two weeks, the video garnered nearly 1,400 clicks. But no mother has come forward to claim the footage. The Worthingtons believe the tapes were lost in a move or home foreclosure.

If the rightful owner wants them, they said, the memories are safe.

"Until then," Chris said, "we'll wait."

Danielle Paquette can be reached at dpaquette@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4224.