Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Sam (who declined to give his last name at the time), speaks to local media after protestors in a Mayday march in downtown Seattle smashed out the rear window of his car as it sat on 6th Avenue, May 1.
By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com
Sam of #findsam has been found.
A day after the search began for the mystery tourist who complained to Seattle television reporters that May Day vandals had slashed his car tires -- and that others had yelled at him to "go back to Canada, hoser" -- he has been located, KING5 TV reported.
Seattle tourism officials were looking for Sam, hoping to offer him an all-expenses paid trip to Seattle.
On Tuesday, Sam told television reporters that his family had been visiting Seattle, only to have their car windows smashed and tires slashed by protesters.
“Welcome to Seattle, eh?” Sam told KING5 with no small amount of cynicism. “Well, maybe there’s a reason why I don’t want to live in the States."
Read the original story at King5.com
Officials from the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau announced they wanted to find Sam but all they knew was his first name and that he drove a newer black Hyundai. And so KOMO TV reporter Lindsay Cohen asked the twittersphere to help her out.
"Vancouver: help find Sam, tourist whose car was smashed in #seamayday violence," Cohen wrote. "Seattle wants to help."
Anthony Bolante / Reuters
Masked protesters smashed the storefront of an American Apparel store during May Day demonstrations in Seattle.
Within a day, a reporter with the Vancouver Province found Sam. He is Samuel Lee of Vancouver, a pastor at Lighthouse Ministries. Lee said he didn't know about the social media campaign, and he declined to comment.
Cohen said Seattleites would like to make up for his negative experience.
“I don’t know if you can after the fact, but they would certainly like to try,” said Cohen, a native New Yorker according to her Twitter page.
As for the person who called Sam a "hoser" -- slang for "idiot" or "loser" in Canada -- he, too, has been found. Jake Ricker, a bike messenger who was on duty, told KOMO News Radio that he thinks it's "insane" Lee would be offered a free holiday.
"I was like, whoa man, like I’m just standing here," Ricker said. "Sorry that happened to your car but, I mean, I had nothing to do with that. And he was, like, in my face saying my friends and I needed to get back to get back there and pay for his damage."
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