Every picture tells a story, but man's precious record is gone

Simon Greenspan lost his lifeline. Have you seen it?

Mr. Greenspan, 24, is a temporary resident at the Northwest Ohio Developmental Center in South Toledo who recently lost his digital camera at a Toledo Walleye hockey game.

The camera is a Canon Powershot Digital ELPH with his name and phone number on the back, and it was in a red Samsonite bag.

Mr. Greenspan - an individual with autism who is high functioning, and who also has obsessive compulsive disorder - hopes someone who found the camera will return it.

He is in the Toledo area, two hours away from his family in Shaker Heights, Ohio, for behavioral therapy.

He is one of about 160 residential clients at the Toledo center, most of whom are diagnosed with severe mental retardation, said Aaron Powell, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities.

Mr. Greenspan's parents bought the camera for him two years ago, before a trip to Israel. While photographing Israeli garbage trucks, police vehicles, and public buses while on vacation, he became accustomed to taking pictures of "all kinds of things," he said.

The camera now holds dozens of photos of Mr. Greenspan's family and familiar places as he continues treatment at the center for the next several weeks. He plans to return to the Cleveland area by the end of March.

His mother, Judy Greenspan, said he also counts on the photos he takes with his camera to be sure he doesn't leave personal items behind at public places.

"It was a valuable tool for him," she said. "I really do think it is part of his lifeline."

Mr. Greenspan apparently misplaced the camera Feb. 12, during a Walleye hockey game he attended with a police officer from the center who took a special interest in him.

An enthusiastic sports fan who is considered by his mother to be a "statistics encyclopedia," Mr. Greenspan he had a great time at the game.

Of the sport, he said: "It is rough, but people love playing hockey. I don't love playing it, but I love watching it."

On the lost camera he has action photos of his favorite Walleye player, JC Sawyer, and posed for a photo with the Walleye mascot, Spike, his mother said.

"When I got back, I really didn't know what happened to it," Mr. Greenspan said. "It's just not happening. I'm really frustrated."