A St. Albert family now has years of family photos back thanks to technology and the RCMP.
“We're so thrilled to get the pictures back, so thrilled. There's no words that describe how we're feeling right now. We're very grateful,” said Lauren Baril.
On Christmas Eve, the couple’s hair salon, Voodo Hair Studio in St. Albert was broken into and a laptop was stolen containing eight years of family photos and videos.
Phil Baril had installed the “Find My iPhone, iPad, Mac” app on the computer and partly credits the GPS technology for its return.
“Every 30 minutes, I was checking the location to see if it would pop up or if it had connected to a Wi-Fi network,” said Phil Baril.
After a few days, the app tracked the computer to an Edmonton address. Phil immediately contacted the RCMP and officers recovered it on December 30.
“It was overwhelming. It was an incredible relief and it meant a lot,” said Phil.
Police say the technology can be hit-or-miss and urge others using the tracking app to do what Phil did and let police handle recovering the items.
“Losing something like that, family photos or whatever it might be, is a blow. But we'd rather you stay safe and we can recover the items at a later time,” said Cst. Subegh Dosanjh with the St. Albert RCMP.
Mounties are still investigating the robbery and charges are pending.
Phil has since backed up his family’s digital history.
With files from CTV's Amanda Anderson
