This Little Girl Was Reunited With Her Beloved Lost Teddy Bear Thanks to Facebook
One stranger's amazing act of kindness brought the pair together again.
By Sasha Henriques
The bond between a child and her favorite stuffed animal is tough to break, as seven-year-old Abby McCoy can attest. McCoy and her teddy bear (aptly named Teddy) are the best of friends. They first became acquainted when McCoy was only two years old, and quickly became inseparable—that is, until she accidentally left her beloved bear behind at an Orange County, California airport.
The McCoys were on a flight home to Georgia after Labor Day weekend when the panicked child realized she had left her favorite stuffed animal at the airport. Her father, Eddie McCoy, contacted the airport as soon as they landed in Georgia—but he was told that the odds of ever finding the bear again were slim.
Little did they know, thousands of miles away, a woman from Raleigh, North Carolina had found the fuzzy teddy, and she had written a Facebook post with an accompanying picture that quickly went viral.
Ann Marie Kernick found the bear at the airport, and decided that she would do her best to find the original owner. So she wrote up a Facebook post with a photo of the bear that said "Please share. I found this guy at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County Airport in California. Let's help him find his home." The post was shared over 28,000 times.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, Eddie McCoy decided that he'd phone the airport officials one more time about any potential leads on the lost bear. McCoy was shocked when an airport officer told the agent McCoy was speaking with that he'd seen a viral Facebook post seeking the owner of a lost teddy bear found at their airport.
The officer, Miguel Rodriguez, immediately got in touch with Kernick, who posted the original plea on Facebook—and Teddy the teddy bear was shipped home to its loving owner the very next day. Kenrick created a new post that said:
TEDDY update!!!! Thanks to Officer Miguel Rodriues in Cali who saw my post we found TEDDY's owner. A little girl in Atlanta has been so sad with out her lovie but tomorrow morning TEDDY will be on his way back home Via Fed Ex!
Eddie McCoy said, "To say we were ecstatic would be an understatement."
It turns out, this is actually the eighth time Teddy has been lost—he's been misplaced a few times at DisneyWorld, Grandma's house, the mall, and the dentist's office, among other places.
"Every time we think he's gone for good, he pops right back up. Sometimes I think he's trying to escape and he's just not very successful," Abby's mom, Anna McCoy, told reporters. That's one lucky bear.
[via AJC.com
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