WPTV-TV:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - James West first thought they were spam.

The emails contained dozens of inside jokes he didn't understand and pictures of people he didn't know.

The emails kept coming into his Gmail account, dozens of notes over the course of three years.

West, a journalist in Sydney, Australia, finally decided to read one of the emails.  Curiosity quickly had him hooked.

"Dozens of emails from the same family," he says.  "It's too long, you want to find out who these people are."

One of the emails centered around the family's Thanksgiving plans.

West couldn't resist.  He posted a video on YouTube called "Tracking Down the Trans."

"This video is to come clean to the Tran family and say, I'm sorry for perving on your Thanksgiving preparations for three years," West says in his video post.  "It's also a plea to the Tran family to say, can I come to Thanksgiving?"