Just when Rob Raker, an American environment scientist-turned-film maker, gave up the idea that he could find his lost camera, more importantly photographs from his trip to the Bardiya National Park, he got an “unexpected” call from Nepal.

“Is this Rob, owner of a camera lost in Nepal?” asked Deepak Ojha, a senior Airport Terminal Services officer. Ojha went beyond his call of duty to track Raker down through a Google group, ktmktm.

Two months ago, Raker, a permanent resident of Boulder in Colorado, the US, had accidentally left behind his Canon 5D Mark III camera worth US $4,000 at the Tribhuvan International Airport on his way home.

“I could barely believe my ears,” Raker said in his email to the Post, “I immediately told my wife, who was also completely amazed that someone from Nepal was able to track me down in the US to let me know that the camera had been found.” Raker’s camera is just one of hundreds of belongings passengers leave behind at the international airport.

Every day, around a dozen complaints are registered at the Terminal Management Division (TMD) of the airport. Until now, however, the airport officials had not paid much attention to lost properties, apart from keeping a log of items found.