He was cleaning out his closet when he came across the tapes.

The reason the footage finally surfaced in 2024 was surprisingly ordinary. While cleaning out a closet, Sugimoto discovered the boxes and began checking the tapes. Some had already deteriorated. He said roughly a third appeared to have demagnetized, leaving recordings blank or badly corrupted, and research quickly taught him that magnetic videotape could degrade even under relatively good storage conditions. He began digitizing the collection before more of it was lost. Among those recordings was the September 11 footage. Once uploaded to YouTube, it spread rapidly, with viewers struck by both its clarity and its unfamiliar angle.

The reaction carried a haunting implication: history does not always sit safely inside museums or official archives. Sometimes it remains for decades in a cardboard box because the person who recorded it does not yet realize how rare it has become.