Woman returns lost photos with Hayward family

UNION CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- A woman found a lost memory card filled with family photos and went on a mission to try to find the rightful owner. Now a Hayward man has those precious memories back with the help of ABC7 News.

The memory card was lying in the parking lot of the Union Landing shopping center in Union City for quite some time. Like so many people before her, Renee Popkes walked by it, twice, then thought of the person who lost it.

Popkes told ABC7 News, "One day pictures and memories are all you have left. The people move on and I would want them back."

She took it home and viewed the pictures.

Popkes said, "I could tell it was a very close family."

She posted them on her Facebook page hoping someone could identify the family, but there was no response.

Popkes said, "So I went to ABC 7 News' Facebook page and put a picture on there and said help me find these people."

The owner of the memory card was Rick Medeiros. He said, "I find out at 5:30 in the morning, from my mom, 'You're on the news on Channel 7.' I said, 'What?'"

Medeiros explained who the family members were in the photos. He said, "That's my daughter, Jamie, my wife, Irene, and my son, Gary."

Medeiros lost the card before he could transfer them to a computer disk. He said, "I appreciate it because there's a lot of memories -- 384 memories in there."

Popkes admits she was too busy to pick it up the first time, but in the end, the value of Rick's memories were well worth a moment of her time.