MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Old-fashioned journalism solved the mystery of a message in a bottle that was found on the beach of Dana Bay last weekend.
Local resident Michael de Nobrega, whose interesting discoveries in the Harry Giddey Park featured in last week's Mossel Bay Advertiser, found a message in a bottle while practising his hobby of metal detecting among the rocks at Dana Bay's first beach.
His metal detector picked up the ring and pendant which was inside the glass bottle, buried in the sand. The bottle also contained a letter handwritten by a 13-year-old girl and a few trinkets, including a sample of her favourite shampoo, a chocolate wrapper and a 'free pass' bracelet from her first foam party.
The letter, which dates 1 Jan 2001, stated, "I want you to look after these things for me and please write to me... I would love to have another friend in my life!"
"I had to break the bottle because the letter was wet and I could not pull it out without tearing it apart," explains De Nobrega.
An excited De Nobrega published photos of the bottle's contents on Facebook on Saturday evening. He tried to find the writer of the letter, Angela Harris, on Facebook, but she did not reply to his messages.
On Monday, Mari Scott, who wrote the previous article in the Mossel Bay Advertiser, roped in the help of her former Caxton colleague Marietta Lombard, editor of the Bedfordview Edenvale News, as the letter stated Harris' physical address as Edenvale / Bedfordview.
Detecting a great potential story, Lombard and the newspaper's online editor, Charmaine Slater, jumped at the opportunity to hopefully find Angela and bring the two together.
"I searched online and it was purely through our skills as multimedia journalists that she was found."
Lombard found Harris on LinkedIn and was able to correctly identify her by cross referencing the information on her profile with that provided in her letter.
"When I told Angela my name, her first question to me was why had I sent her a Facebook friend request and why was I phoning her.
"I asked her to confirm her name and date of birth. Hesitantly, she answered yes. I then asked her whether she had written a letter on January 1, 2001, and had placed the letter with several items in a bottle. Again she replied yes. 'Your letter has been found,' I said.
"Angela was taken aback, but pleasantly surprised. She granted us permission to provide her contact details to Michael, to put them in touch with each other.
“Finding Angela and putting people in contact with each other is a significant part of Caxton community newspapers,” says Lombard.
Harris' comment on Facebook in reaction to the article was, "Wow... Can't begin to express the feelings I have experienced today. Thank you for taking that extra step to find me.. It means so much to me."
The bottle with the letter and the metal detector that was used to find it.
ARTICLE: MARI SCOTT, MOSSEL BAY ADVERTISER JOURNALIST.
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