Tourist's camera takes five-year, 6,000-mile detour

(CBS News) Lindsay Scallan's 2007 dream vacation to Hawaii with friends was perfect until the night she went scuba diving.

"I remember it very clearly," she explains. "I will never do a night dive again. It was scary, because of sharks ... and blackness and current and I lost my camera."

Her Canon camera was in its waterproof case, strapped to her wrist during her dive, but somewhere a long the way it disappeared in the water and with it went all her vacation photos.

Or so she thought.

Five years later her camera began to make headlines, both in Hawaii where it was lost, and in Taiwan where it was found.

Over the past five years, the camera drifted from Maui to the coast of Taitung, Taiwan, which is 6,000 miles away. A man named Douglas Cheng found it on the beach last month covered in barnacles and sand.

But inside, Cheng found 100 photos on the memory card. He recognized Hawaii in them, and contacted media in Honolulu to start a worldwide search for the mystery blonde woman.

Lindsay Scallan and her friend Jessica got a Facebook message from a high school friend who had seen a story online about a missing camera.

"At first I thought it was a scam and then I got to read it and I was like 'oh my goodness, this is for real and this is my camera,'" said Scallan. "I found some other links that showed more pictures and I couldn't believe it."

Tuesday evening Scallan and Cheng had a video chat on line. It was the first time they had spoken. She told him she's coming to Taiwan and will be able to thank him in person. Cheng offered to be her tour guide, and since he works China Airlines, the carrier is planning on flying her to Taiwan in June for free.