Webcam Watcher Saves Stranger’s Life from 350 Miles Away  
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - Last updated 02/04/2010

A woman in Germany has saved the life of a man who was a complete stranger to her, using only her webcam and a telephone. According to authorities, the man, who was admiring the sunset near St. Peter-Ording off the German - Danish border, and who had wandered out onto the ice of the frozen North Sea, would surely have died had the woman not just happened to be watching the same sunset - only from 350 miles away, via webcam.

The man had become lost and disoriented as to where he was, out on that vast field of ice, as temperatures plummeted towards -20. Having a camera with him, he began setting the flash of, hoping in desperation that someone else might be watching the same sunset, and see the flash from his camera, and realize that it was a distress signal.

Amazingly, someone else was watching that sunset, and because the webcam through which she was watching it from the cozy indoor warmth of her home was at just the right angle to have the man’s camera flash in its field of view, she saw the flash.

Perhaps even more amazingly, she realized it for what it was - a distress signal - and called the police, who launched a rescue operation and saved the man.

According to a police spokeswoman, “He was walking on the ice, got disoriented and would probably have either fallen through the ice or succumbed to the cold. He was very lucky that this lady was sharing the same natural phenomenon but from the warmth and safety of her own home.”

“He was not a local - a local wouldn’t have attempted this. He was boundlessly naive,” she added.