Webcam saves a life
February 3, 2010 on 10:19 am | In News | 1 Comment
In case you missed this story on the Yahoo! homepage today…
Earlier this week, a woman in northern Germany sat down at her computer to tune into the sunset over the North Sea. Tune in? Yes, she was watching via a tourist webcam that overlooks the sea in the town of St. Peter-Ording, Germany.
While she was watching, she noticed periodic flashes of light from the ice. Turns out they were from a man’s camera. He was using it as a sort of S.O.S. beacon after wandering out onto the ice to photograph the sunset. But he quickly became disoriented, unsure how to get back to shore.
From hundreds of kilometers a way, the woman contacted police, who located the man’s signals and guided him into shore by flashing their car lights.
At the time the man lost his bearings, the air temperature was below freezing. He could have frozen to death or fallen through the ice, added police spokeswoman Kristin Stielow.
Stielow said locals are well aware of the risk of disorientation as darkness falls and the beach becomes hard to identify, but vivid sunsets over frozen landscapes often draw people away from the shore.
You can view the St. Peter-Ording webcam here, though the attention from this news story seems to have crippled the site. So bookmark it and check it out in a couple of days. Or check out some of the St. Peter-Ording pics from Flickr below.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
good work by web cam something funny i love that
Comment by riazullah — February 10, 2010 #