A woman watching a live webcam of a German beach noticed a lost tourist, and notified local authorities so that he could be rescued.
Plenty of towns, cities, and tourist attractions have set up live webcams to allow home viewers to check out the scenery from the comfort of their own homes—but we bet that when representatives for the town of St. Peter-Ording, Germany, set up a webcam of their beautiful beach, they never expected it to serve as a lifeguard.
Last week, a woman in southern Germany was watching the webcam to see the sun setting over the ocean when she spotted something unusual: a man in the distance, walking across the ice to get a better view of the sunset and to take a few photos. But as the light began to fade, his observer from afar could tell that he was lost, and stood little chance of making it back to the shore.
She immediately called the police to alert them of the situation, and authorities in St. Peter-Ording went out on a search to retrieve the lost tourist. Thanks to the webcam viewer’s lucky spot, he made it safely back to the beach.
“He got lost on the ice and could not find the coast again because it was covered in snow,” the town’s spokeswoman, Kristin Stielow, told BBC News.
If you’d like to check out St. Peter-Ording’s webcam for yourself, you can access it here. Make sure to look carefully—you never know when you might be able to save someone’s life on the other side of the world!