US officer relieved at return of top camera equipment he left on Dart

A US Army officer is trying to track down three teenage good Samaritans who handed in a bag containing camera equipment worth thousands of euro after he left it on a Dart carriage in Dublin.

Alexander Jansen, a US Army engineer based in Germany, was taking a whirlwind trip across Paris, Barcelona, London, and Dublin with his two younger sisters a few weeks ago when he lost his bag containing all his camera equipment, as well as hundreds of euro in cash and all three passports.

Mr Jensen and his sisters had just got off a Dart at Clontarf Rd when he realised he’d left the bag on the train.

The photographer was devastated when he realised that thousands of euro worth of equipment containing photos of the trip of a lifetime were now highly likely to be stolen and lost forever.

After attempting to chase the train down the platform to get the driver’s attention, Mr Jansen went to customer service for assistance, where a staff member contacted the driver.

Mr Jansen related: “He hangs up the phone and says: ‘There’s no one on the train other than the driver, and he can’t stop the train. You will have to wait for it to reach the end of the line and then have my guy at Howth [the final stop] check to see if it’s still there. I’m going to be completely honest with you, I don’t think it will be there. That train is passing through some really bad areas.’ ”

After waiting at the station until the Dart reached the end of the line, Mr Jansen was relieved to find out there is still some good among the youth of today.

“He puts the phone on his shoulder and asks me to describe everything in the bag, which I do in a level of detail that would befit the most meticulously planned of military operations,” said Mr Jansen. “I give the names and dates of birth on the three passports. And then it comes — the smile.”

It turns out that three teenage girls on the Dart saw him running after the train. They looked after the bag and handed it in. The trio, believed to be around 14 or 15, were on their way to a beach party.

“Had the Irish girls on the train not had such integrity, I would never have been able to share photos of the first time the three of us ever saw the Eiffel Tower, which coincidentally happened to be on Bastille Day. I would never have taken a photo of the Plaza de Toros in Barcelona. I would never have taken off my shirt and instructed my sisters to re-enact a bullfight,” he said.

*If you are one of the girls who held on to the bags, Mr Jansen wants to get in touch to say thanks: alexjansenphotography.com.