A lost Olympic ticket was returned to its owner within hours -- all through the power of Twitter.
Cameron Montgomery, 29, found the ticket on the morning of Aug. 3 at a train station just north of London. Valued at nearly £300 (almost USD $500), it was for an athletics event that very evening.
But rather than attend one of the Games' most popular events, Montgomery opted to find the ticket's rightful owner by combing through social media.
"With each ticket having a name on it, I went about looking for the person on the Internet, looking at Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but didn't really hit with anything," he tells Mashable in an email.
(Montgomery later discovered that he was searching the incorrect name because the owner's friend had actually bought the ticket.)
Finding no leads, he decided to send out several tweets:
Sooooo has anyone in the Farringdon area lost an Olympic Games tickets. Found one this morning?— Cameron Montgomery (@patternr) August 3, 2012
So Twitter I've found a ticket to an Olympic event this morning, for a session tonight. care to help me reunite it with its owner?— Cameron Montgomery (@patternr) August 3, 2012
A few people offered to buy the ticket, while others encouraged Montgomery, an Australian living in London, to keep it himself.
His search gained momentum after other users, including the BBC, retweeted his message.
But it was a retweet by the West Hampsted Hockey Club that caught the attention of Mike Boag, the ticket's owner.
@whhcuk @patternr hi guys, this may be my ticket, please call me and I will give details to prove it is mine 07966227301— Mike Boag (@mikeboag) August 3, 2012
Massive thanks @whhcuk @patternr for reuniting me with ticket, faith in humanity restored— Mike Boag (@mikeboag) August 3, 2012
After successfully identifying the ticket's details, Boag scrambled to get it from Montgomery -- with only moments to spare.
"He rushed over to my office and collected the ticket all with about an hour to go to get to the stadium to see the start!" Montgomery says. "He was a bit stressed out and relieved, but thankful for what I did."
Ticket has be claimed, nice work twitter, high fives for everyone— Cameron Montgomery (@patternr) August 3, 2012
The incident demonstrates social media's far-reaching presence, Montgomery says.
"Twitter was a much better tool in finding the owner than it was going to the box office [or] Olympic Park."