Sisters search for owners of lost family photos left in Santa Monica

SANTA MONICA,Calif. (KABC) -- A woman is looking for the rightful owners of some long lost family pictures after she found them on the sidewalk in Santa Monica.

Lighting the menorah, celebrating a child's birthday, and posing for a family photo - these are some of the 42 pictures dating back decades, which someone lost in Santa Monica.

Van Tieu and her sister, Uyen Tieu Canner, saw them scattered on 4th Street near Pico Boulevard Friday morning.

"Today is Passover. It was probably, maybe an old lady that collected the photos and wanted to share them during Seder, and so I felt, like, today is sort of a special day and that these photos were very special to someone out there," said Canner.

Some of the color photos are from the 1970s. Some of the black and white pictures are from the 1940s. Others appear even older but don't have handwritten or printed dates on the back.

"The kind of common denominator is the matriarch of the family. You see this woman - she has a very friendly face, and she's in most of the pictures," said Tieu.

In hopes of finding the owner, Tieu went to Santa Monica High School and the nearest synagogue, but came up empty handed. Tieu said she understands how the owner may feel - thinking these snapshots in time are gone for good.

"My family, we were burglarized many years back, and all our family photos were stolen, so we know how much this is important to this family," she said.

Knowing these prints are likely irreplaceable, Tieu and Canner hope they can return them to their rightful owner.

"I think it's just priceless, just because in today's day and age everything's digital...that having actual photos dating back to the 1930s, 40s and the 70s - you just can't replace them," said Canner.