Texas Man Reunited With Prosthetic Leg After Losing It a Year Ago in California Lake

A Texas man who lost his prosthetic leg while on a kayaking trip in California nearly a year ago has been reunited with the artificial limb after it was found by a Good Samaritan scuba diver.

Dave Fatta said he went into the water of Lake Natoma, near Sacramento, last summer but was missing something important when he "popped up."

"And I said, 'Well, holy cow! I lost my leg!'" he told local TV station CBS News Sacramento for a report that aired Sunday night.

"Everybody was like, 'Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Where'd you lose it at?"

Fatta, who lives in Texas, had been using the artificial limb since 2005 after his right leg was amputated below the knee following a workplace accident.

But a video shot underwater at Lake Natoma last week shows the moment Matt Spruitenberg spotted the prosthetic and grabbed it off the lake bed.

"I just kind of happened upon it," Spruitenberg told CBS 13.

Spruitenberg volunteers for American River Lost & Found, which posted his discovery on a Facebook page that helps people recover items swallowed up by U.S. waterways.

Fatta said a friend saw his prosthetic leg there and immediately recognized it.

"She's like, 'Oh, my God! You'll never guess what somebody posted on Facebook,' and they're holding up a picture of the leg," Fatta said.

"And I said, 'Well, that's my leg!'"

The unidentified friend was scheduled to fly to Texas with the leg and return it to Fatta on Monday.

"The moral of the story is there are still good people in the world," Fatta said.