A man’s appeal for the whereabouts of his lost smartphone has been widely shared online after he explained that the device contained footage of his marriage proposal to his fiancée, who was later killed by cancer.
The owner, a Taiwanese resident of Yuen Long surnamed Man, first shared a HKD1,000 reward for the lost phone on Facebook yesterday, saying that the Samsung smartphone was last seen near Tin Chak Estate in Tin Shui Wai. After failing to locate it, Man posted another appeal for the phone today, increasing the cash reward to HKD2,880 (nearly three times the retail value) and added that the device has “valuable footage of [his] fiancée before she died”.
Man’s post was soon picked up by popular community pages for Yuen Long residents and received over seven hundred shares (at the time of writing) from netizens who expressed their sympathy towards him.
https://www.facebook.com/YuenLongLocals/photos/a.372086736252269.1073741828.372073122920297/1248835381910729/?type=3&theater
Speaking to HK01, Man said he met his fiancée, a Hongkonger named Fiona, when they were both volunteering to help the needy in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. “We started dating soon and wanted to get married one day, but she got brain cancer about two years ago. I left my job in Taiwan and moved to Hong Kong to look after her. At the time that I proposed, she had already received the diagnosis, but [the cancer] was in its early stages and we had plans for our life together after her recovery,” he said.
Man proposed to Fiona in a local restaurant and had the moment captured on video by a helpful diner who was nearby. The couple’s happiness was short-lived, however, as Fiona’s cancer took her life shortly afterwards.
Last Friday night, Man was walking opposite the McDonald’s near Tin Chak Shopping Centre when he realized his phone had gone missing, and failed to locate it after searching all night. As a result, he turned to the internet in the hopes of retrieving his cherished memories of Fiona.
“It’s not just the video of the proposal — I’ve got pictures of the hikes we took together, snapshots from our volunteer work, and other treasured photos and videos of our life together on there. Not backing up the files is my fault, but I really hope I can get the phone back.”
If you see a black Samsung Galaxy Grand in a red case with a wallpaper of the Rambo: In First Blood poster, please call Sam Man at 5340 2995.
