Man Loses His Wife, Camera With Funeral Photos Is Stolen And Cops Reach Out Two Years Later

Jan 07, 2022 by apost team

Losing a loved one is never easy. As people work through the grieving process, it's common to reflect on all of the amazing times they were able to share together. This could mean watching silly home movies, looking through endless photographs, or playing your loved one's favorite songs.

For one man by the name of David Lacey, he had lost not only his wife, but a camera that contained some of their beautiful photographs together. It was incredibly important to him, but sadly, it had been stolen. Prior to losing his camera, Lacey had not yet uploaded the photographs from the memory card to any other device, meaning that they were gone forever – or so he thought.

Lacey's late wife was named Erica. She was his best friend. They had at least 200 people at their wedding and were excited to start their lives together, but Erica unfortunately grew very sick. At the age of 28, she was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, and wore bandages on her arm on her wedding day to hide what was happening. She died in December 2011.

When Lacey's camera was stolen, so were the 300 pictures of Erica and her funeral. The police in Santa Ana, California, were on the case, tracking down the person responsible for a string of burglaries. Fortunately, in February 2014, a cop found the missing camera and recognized a face in the photos, leading to him returning the camera to its rightful owner. Lacey was finally able to see the pictures he had been longing to look at for more than a year.

Holding Onto The Memories

Thanks to the Santa Ana Police Department, Lacey was finally able to see pictures of his late wife that he thought had been lost forever. According to CBS2, the camera was filled with pictures of his late wife's funeral, and was taken during a home burglary more than a year prior. "I'd written it off, like, it was gone," Lacey said. 

Talking about losing the pictures, Lacey told CNN, "It just didn't seem fair because after all that we went through, to lose those, it was like a punch in the gut." He added, "Even though those are hard pictures to see, they're still something I want captured and want to remember."

Police said a man named David Aguilar broke into several homes, and a tracking device on a stolen computer led Detective Jerry Verdugo to Aguilar's residence. They discovered that the camera had landed in the hands of his partner, Monica Molina, and was sold to a pawn shop.

After finding the pawn slips, the detective went to the pawnshop, where he found a camera that contained a picture that caught his eye, according to CBS2. "There was a photograph of a neighborhood that had distinct trees and a large wall and when we drove out there, we located (Lacey)," he said. 

Lacey was ecstatic. "I was like, What? No way!' I was super surprised and stoked," he said. CNN reported that all of the old pictures were still there, along with the colorful camera strap Erica had handsewn. "I feel like someone was watching out for me, just to get it back," Lacey said. He believes that Erica is still looking over him. He added, "It makes things easier."

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