"If you're about to read this, bloody don't!'
Those were the first words David Ryan read when he opened a book found at the back of a cupboard during the tenant inspection of his new apartment in Melbourne in 2016.
"I opened it up and my jaw just dropped," he said.
"Sitting in an empty apartment where every sound echoes, I felt like I was in the opening act of a horror movie.
"I kept reading."
David had found a diary that had been written at least 15 years before.
The book itself looked its age, with a manky green cover that had been taped up and cut open again.
David said he initially was not sure whether he should read it, but he took the comical nature of the first page as an invitation.
"What am I going to do, just close the book and throw it in the trash?"
David was taken by the layout of the pages which he scanned for clues of the author's identity.
Some pages have text written into three narrow columns; others include foreign banknotes, maps and elaborate illustrations.
"He's hand drawn all of these maps and cartoons and there's just story after story of his travels over this two-year stretch.
"There must have been 100 pages of handwriting."
What David read inspired him to get it back to the person who penned it.
"The first journal entry lamented the loss of a previous journal," he said.
"This made me want to return this journal to its owner, who I'm sure would appreciate it back."
David made a few different attempts but was unsuccessful.
But while packing up his apartment to move back to Brisbane earlier this month, he stumbled upon the diary once again, and renewed his mission to find the owner.
This time he recruited help from the public via Reddit by posting a series of photos from the diary hoping to get a lead.
"I was really just hoping he would happen across it," David said.
"They were the sleuths who got to the bottom of it."
Two names were pulled out of the text which led David to a New Zealand band called Ziko, which played from 2008 to 2012.
"I contacted each of the members through various means but I was mostly matching names on social media," he said.
"I must have sent about 20 or 30 messages and most of them were to people with the same name but weren't the right person."
Finally, the vocalist from the band saw the message and replied only with an email address and the words "try this".
David sent an email and sure enough, he had his guy: a New Zealand man named Nick Boyle now living in Australia.
"The guy was like, 'Whoa, that's my diary,'" David said.
"He was probably a little confused about how I got his email but he was also really thankful at the same time."
'I feel like I know the guy'
After reading the diary and even sharing parts of it with the world, David felt it was only right he share a bit about himself with Nick.
"I've had this thing in my possession for years and I've perused it a couple of times so I feel like I know the guy a little bit," he said.
"So I thought I'd return the favour and I put a little handwritten note in with the journal.
"I gave him an advanced scoop on what was about to happen 30 minutes later — that is, I was about to propose to my girlfriend."
She said yes.
"I took the journal for one last adventure and then I sent it from Apollo Bay," David said.
He said the experience had been fulfilling.
"I feel a little bit guilty that it took me so long to get in touch with this guy, but I don't think it really matters in the grand scheme of things, he's just happy to get it back," he said.
David said he and his fiancée wanted to start a family and he hoped he could journal that experience.
"God knows where a new dad is going to find time to journal anything," he said.
