When the men of his family invited him on a daytime fishing trip, 11-year-old Brodie Brooks felt over the moon with excitement. However, little did he know that the daytime excursion would soon spiral into an adventure the young boy would never forget, all thanks to one mysterious purse.
When he headed out to the lake with his new fishing rod, Brooks through he might pull out a fish for dinner. Instead, he managed to reel in an extraordinary discovery: a purse that seemed to have been underwater for decades. Still, when the Brooks family opened the bag, they could never have expected to find a photo featuring a familiar face…
1. A Fishing Trip
In the middle of July 2017, 11-year-old Brodie Brooks had one of the most exciting birthdays of his life. Not only did the young man receive a brand new fishing rod, but his uncles and extended family promised to bring him along on a fishing trip! Like any good fisherman, Brooks could only think about one thing leading up to the trip: catching a big fish!
Of course, at the time, none of the family expected the fishing trip to include anything out of the ordinary. While the beautiful day started off normally, Brooks would soon make the biggest catch of his life. Except it was a fish…
2. The Fishing Party
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The fishing trip occurred at a beautiful lake, Lake Hartwell (seen below), in Anderson County, the heart of South Carolina. Armed with their rods, patience, and great companionship, Brooks and his family set up their fishing rods and eased into the morning. Soon enough, it had become one of the most beautiful days any of the fishermen had seen in quite some time.
As the fishing party set up along the lake, Brooks could not wait to cast a line with his box-fresh Ugly Stik fishing rod. Despite what the name might suggest, it was actually a very nice fishing pole. Before long, the young boy already had the ropes down!
3. Learning the Ropes
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As fishing groups so often do, they spent the morning bantering and telling jokes, waiting for the first bite of the day. More than anything else, they all felt excited to see Brooks catch his first fish with his new rod! The young boy felt the same way, but the first few hours passed without so much as a nibble.
Throughout the morning, Ben Myers, 39, a relative of Brooks, took on the job of watching over the young boy as he made his way through the morning. Along the way, he also taught the young boy how to bait and cast out his new fishing rod. Then, out of nowhere, Brooks’ seemed to catch something!
4. Catch Me If You Can
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You can imagine the look of surprise on Myers’ face when young Brooks yelled that something was tugging at his line. After all, the young boy had just started! Still, a big believer in beginner’s luck, Myers began helping his young relative to pull in whatever he had found.
Meanwhile, as he reeled it in, Brooks felt sure he had snagged a big fish on the end of his line, especially since it pulled the line quite violently. In fact, the rod started to bend so much that the 11-year-old felt worry build up inside him. “I’d just gotten a brand new Ugly Stik, so when the line started pulling so vigorously, I was worried I might break the rod,” he explained. Thankfully, it did not! However, as Brooks pulled his catch from the water, they realized it was no fish…
5. Not a Fish
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As the young man continued to pull his catch from the water, with the help of his uncle Ben Myers, the rest of his family quickly surrounded him, clearly excited. Unfortunately, as the uncle and nephew finally managed to pull the catch from the water, it became clear it was not a fish. Instead, it looked like a strange square object.
Fearing his new rod would break, Brooks dove into the water and pulled what looked to be a bag from the lake. Back on the shore, the young boy immediately realized he had stumbled upon something quite unusual and unique, even if it wasn’t a fish!
7. Overcoming Initial Disappointment
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At first, Brooks recalled later, the 11-year-old felt a little disappointed that he had not actually caught a large fish. After all, as it was his first time fishing, he had felt sure that he had snagged a fish, given the way the rod bobbed. Of course, Brooks had never suffered the defeat of reeling in trash, something all fishermen must go through.
However, Brooks quickly overcame these feelings the more he examined his strange find. Although he had no idea where the purse had come from, the young boy knew it must belong to someone. No one throws a full bag into a lake for no reason…
6. Examining The Purse
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As Brooks looked over and poked at the purse, he felt sure, given the water damage and mud, it had been down there for some time. But, outside of that, Myers and Brooks could not say precisely how long it had been on the water. Even though it was covered in mud, the zipper seemed intact, and no water leaked from the bag. It seemed that whatever was inside had probably remained intact.
For a moment, Brooks and his uncle debated opening the purse. It wasn’t theirs, after all. Still, soon enough, they realized to return the pocketbook to its proper home, they would need to open it up and look at the contents. And one object in the bag would catch Myers’ eye right away…
9. There’s Always a First Time
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As stated, almost all fishermen have to deal with the disappointment of snagging some trash every once in a while. From seaweed to plastic bottles, there’s quite a bit of junk that one can catch with a fishing hook. However, believe it or not, in all of his years fishing, Myers had never found anything more exciting than rusty cans. Still, there’s always a first time for everything!
“We might catch a can here or something like that. But as far as a woman’s purse, that’s a first for me,” Myers told the media later on. “I’ve been fishing on this lake all my life, and that’s the first time I saw something be caught like this.”
8. “You Got a Treasure”
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Still, while Ben Myers had never pulled up anything more interesting than fish and cans from the lake, he had heard tales of other fishermen reeling in treasure. So, the minute his young nephew pulled the purse out of the lake, Myers knew they might have something interesting on their hands. “I told him, ‘You ain’t got no fish, you got a treasure!'” Myers recalled to ABC News.
In fact, it was Myers’ upbeat attitude that helped Brooked change his disappointed tune. After all, it’s not every day you find a treasure on a lake! Soon enough, the uncle and nephew were playing detective with the items in the bag…
10. Decent Condition
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Fortunately for the previous owner, the bag had been zipped when it fell into the water. Thankfully, despite the years underwater, the purse’s contents remained in pretty good condition! Even the exterior of the bag did not look as bad as Myers expected it to, given it had stayed 30 feet deep in Lake Hartwell for years.
As Brooks and Myers opened the bag up and went through its contents, they discovered more about the purse’s owner. It included old, dated photos, and although a few faces were staring back at them, no one in the Brooks’ family knew any of the members of the images. Not at first, anyway…
11. Evidence About the Owner
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While the men could not place the items at first, the muddy purse contained plenty of evidence about the owner. Brooks and Myers quickly discovered two tubes of lipstick and gift cards so old that some of the stores that sold them were long out of business. At the bottom of the purse, the two men even found a teasing comb – presumably to get the owner’s hair to the optimum height. That certainly made Myers think the bag had been in the lake since the ’80s or ’90s – quite a long time!
Meanwhile, the purse also contained photographs in her purse, meaning she lost it before smartphones became a common occurrence. Hopefully, the photos would help Brooks and Myers locate the purse’s owner!
14. How Did The Purse End Up There?
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As the uncle and nephew continued looking through the bag, they only found themselves with more questions. Those, of course, included what had happened to the bag, and how long exactly it had been at the bottom of the lake. Brooks and Myers also had to wonder why the bag had ended up at the bottom of the lake in the first place! Cosmetic and monetary items aside, the pocketbook also included a lot of photos of people, which almost certainly meant something to the owner.
Some items, like a driving permit, indicated where the owner lived, but had become too destroyed to be useful. Soon enough, Brooks and Myers realized the would need to take a closer look in order to find the owner.
12. Going Through The Photos
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After looking at the other object from the underwater purse, Brooks and Myers carefully started going through the sodden photographs. Some of the photos were just too damaged to see there faces in them. However, despite the water damage, a few images managed to survive the trip in the lake. And, as Myers started scrutinizing the photos, he saw a face that made him do a double-take!
Although Myers could not possibly believe it, he felt sure he knew one of the women in the photos. Whether it was just a coincidence or fate, Myers was positive that he had attended school with the woman in question many years ago!
13. A Friendly Face
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The more he looked at the picture, the less Myers could believe what he was looking at. Astounded by the fact that his nephew had reeled in a purse to bring with, it seemed impossible to the man that he knew the owner. Later, everyone on the trip would recall just how strange the entire experience of finding the bag felt. But Myers was sure it belonged to an old friend of the family!
“She’s a friend of the family. I went to school with her nephew, but I hadn’t seen her in ten years,” Myers later told ABC News. While Myers recognized the woman from his childhood, he struggled to further place her or recall her name. Then, after a few minutes of contemplation, Myers finally remembered!
15. Reaching Out
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After he saw the face of a woman he knew, Myers knew he had to reach out right away. In fact, the man pulled out his cellphone right there and started calling anyone who might still be in contact with the woman. Meanwhile, others began taking more photos with their phones, in case the bag had been taken in a criminal act.
Eventually, Myers contacted the woman in question. As you might imagine, she felt quite stunned to receive the call. At first, she even though that Myers was a prank caller, and considered hanging up. However, when he started telling her very specific details of her lost purse, 49-year-old April Bolt knew that the call was real!
16. Astonished
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As it turned out, 49-year-old April Bolt was the owner of the purse. As you can imagine, she felt incredibly excited to reunite with her long-lost bag. “I couldn’t believe it. I was lost for words. You never think you’d see it again,” Bolt told ABC News, clearly still overwhelmed, even days after the incident.
Just as Myers had predicted, Bolt lost her purse in the early ’90s! That meant the bag had remained underwater for twenty-seven years! Unsurprisingly, everyone, including Bolt, felt astounded by the great shape the purse remained in. Not only that, but the fact the Myers could not only see the photos but that he also remembered Bolt, is nothing short of a miracle!
18. Suspicious Circumstances
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Of course, Brooks and Myers desperately wanted to know how the purse had ended up underwater. So, Bolt told them that she had lost her precious purse during a cookout at a marina close to Lake Hartwell in 1992. She and her family had spent the day on a boat, as her parents owned a condo nearby. Eventually, they parked the boat at the dock and grilled some burgers in the evening. Bolt left her purse on the boat, but when she returned, she found her purse missing.
While the uncle and nephew first thought the purse had simply gone overboard, Bolt soon filled them in on the strange circumstance of its disappearance. Because Bolt also remembers something very interesting about that day…
19. Bolt’s Theory
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You see, Bolt remembers seeing two fishermen that she had never seen before as she walked off the boat. Then, later when she returned, not only was her purse gone, but so too were the fisherman. So, it seemed only logical to Bolt that they had taken it.
Even today, Bolt sticks by this theory, relaying it to ABC News recently: “We were on the boat, and my parents had a condo there, and we were grilling burgers, and we parked the boat in the slip… There were two guys there fishing and – I hate to accuse anybody – but when we got back I was like, ‘My pocketbook is gone!'” And the loss was not easy on the young woman.
20. An Emotional Lost
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When Bolt received the call that her purse had been found, she remembered how emotional the loss made her. “I was crying [at the time],” she recalled. “It wasn’t a whole lot of cash – maybe like $60. But a woman fits her whole life in her purse. It was devastating.” Back in 1992, Bolt found it hard to fathom replacing not only her cash but all of her cards, which, as you probably know, is a stressful process.
Even worse, Bolt also realized that some items she could not ever replace. “My favorite lipstick was in there, and the color was discontinued,” she explained. However, now Bolt can wear her favorite shade one last time – if she doesn’t mind the lake smell too much!
21. Timeless Pictures
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Lipstick aside, back in 1992, Bolt felt most upset about losing something that meant much more than any material object. You see, among the photos in the purse were photos of her first son as a baby. Now, after so many years of never believing she would see them again, Bolt has her pictures back.
“My son is 26 now, but he was 15 months then, and I had all his photos that were professionally taken in my wallet. They have water damage, but you can make him out,” Bolt explained. As you can see, it was impossible to put a price on photos taken almost three decades ago. Even with the water damage, Bolt feels over the moon about recovering the photos.
22. It Was Worth the Effort
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When Myers was asked about the turn of events of the day, he remained shocked and speechless as to what had transpired. Myers told ABC News that it “was pretty wild…You fish up a purse – for one – then you actually know whose it was…” he continued, before losing the worse. Meanwhile, Bolt said that the bag’s recovery from a depth of 30 feet, after a quarter of a century gone, “meant the world” to her.
Of course, 11-year-old Brodie Brooks still wishes he had caught a fish instead. Though, returning a prized possession to someone certainly makes for a better “first catch” memory with his brand new rod!
23. A Gift From the Universe
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Following the discovery, however, Bolt is still trying to figure out why the universe wanted her to have her purse back. She also wonders why the men did not merely throw the bag back into the boat. But Bolt doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. “Everyone keeps telling me, ‘There’s got to be a meaning to why you’re finding this so many years later,'” she said. “I’m sure God will reveal that in time.”
For right now, Bolt simply wants to revel in her good fortune, and the pleasant memories her purse has provoked. “It’s just so precious to have it back,” she said to ABC News.
24. Creating New Memories
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After April Bolt finally got her hands on her long-lost bag again, she felt more than excited to start creating new memories with its contents. You see, as Bolt’s son was only 15 months when the purse disappeared, he had never seen the photos of him as a baby before.
How amazing must it have been to join his mother in uncovering long lost pictures of a long, long time ago? Well, maybe they were both equally excited about the prospect of the bag resurfacing that fateful day. Fortunately, Bolt won’t have to look back and feel bad about her long-lost purse anymore! Believe it or not, Bolt’s purse is not the only strangely personal object found deep underwater…
25. A Diving Expedition
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On the morning of May 13, 2014, a diving team from the Marine Ecology Department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, prepared to head out into some pretty deep waters. You see, the team wanted to conduct a research dive to study the waters off the coast of Bamfield, near Vancouver Island.
While the dive team had initially planned to simply take some notes on oceanic wildlife, their goals that day quickly changed. As the team loaded up the boat and headed out onto the deep blue sea, they had no idea what the ocean depths had in store for them…
26. The Team
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Specifically, the team wanted to dive into the cold waters to study the many variations of sea stars that call the area home. By taking a large group out there, the divers hoped to shed light on their interesting behavior and numbers. Not only that, but some of the divers also planned to capture a few sea stars to study them back in the school labs.
However, once down on the seafloor, something embedded in the sea bed caught the eye of one diver. At first, he had no idea what the item could be. So, the diver and his partner swam closer, determined to figure it out. Upon closer inspection, the two students managed to determine precisely what the strange object was…
27. The Discovery
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Beau Doherty, left, and Tella Osler, right, were the Simon Fraser University students who noticed something strange on the seafloor. While Doherty saw it first, the second he pointed it out, Olser agreed the square object did not belong. Determined to remove any trash from the beautiful ocean, the two swam over and tried to remove the object.
Closer, they noticed the object had hard edges and a leather strap that waved in the current. As Doherty pulled the belt, he felt surprised to see a round lense emerge from the sand. Despite the algae and literal sea life living on the object, the diver recognized it as a camera!
28. Who’s The Owner?
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After Doherty discovered the rusty camera, he placed it in his dive bag and continued with his research. However, as he continued his diving expedition, the diver couldn’t help but wonder who the old camera had belonged to. More importantly, how had this camera ended up on the seafloor, so deep in the water and so far away from the shore. Also, how long had it been there?
“One of [the divers] picked it up and put it in his pocket and kept counting the starfish,” Professor Isabelle Cote recalled in an interview. “When they came up from the dive, he said, ‘Look what I found.'” As you might imagine, the whole team felt curious and wanted to find out everything about the unusual find!
29. Grabbing Her Attention
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After Doherty revealed what he had found, the old camera particularly caught the attention of Cote’s co-professor, Siobhan Gray. What was so special about this rusty camera?
Well, while Gray had accompanied the group out that day, her main interest of study was not actually the starfish. Instead, she had tagged along to study aquatic plant life for the Bamfield Marine Sciences Center. When looking at the camera, Grey felt amazed to see fauna growing on the surface of the electronic! So she decided to take the rusty camera back to her lab for further investigation. Back at the lab, Gray found far more than she ever expected…
30. An Ecosystem
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Gray could not believe the miniature ecosystem that she discovered living inside the old, rusty camera. While she had seen plenty of algae and plant life on the outside of the camera, nothing could prepare her for the inside!
Inside, Gray found not only several more species of algae, but also a sea cucumber and two brittle stars. For those not in the know, brittle stars are very similar to sea stars, just much, much smaller. Nature had found a way to take over the camera and turn it into part of its ecosystem, as Gray and Cote taught in their ecology classes. However, as luck would have it, that wasn’t all that Gray had discovered…
31. A Valuable Find
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Now, many might assume that a camera that spent years underwater would be completely useless. And they’re right! However, memory cards, on the other hand, are known to be able to take quite the beating. And, when Gray popped it out of its tray, it actually looked in pretty good shape!
Even though the SD card was covered in black algae, the team hoped that it would still work when placed in a computer. Even better, they hoped that a few shots had survived the water damage. If they had, the dive team might even be able to track down the original owner. While it felt like a long shot, they felt more than willing to try!
32. The Moment of Truth
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When Gray discovered that the SD card remained almost intact, she felt another wave of excitement flow through her. “My first thought about the camera was, are there still images on the card?” she recalled. Even in the interview, months after finding the camera, Gray could still barely contain how excited she felt about solving this long-forgotten mystery.
After removing the SD card from the camera, Gray carefully cleaned every bit of it with an earbud and rubbing alcohol. Then, Gray slotted it into her computer and took a deep breath. The moment of truth arrived…and the memory card worked! To find out what Gray found on the card, click “Next” below…
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