The 'Famous' Stolen Teddy Bear With Dead Mom's Last Message Returned to Owner
A woman from Vancouver, who was searching for her stolen teddy bear with her dead mom's voice recording, was found with the help of some celebrities, including Ryan Reynolds.
Mara Soriano's teddy bear has been found with the help of celebrities through a shared tweet. Soriano, 28, was moving in Vancouver, Canada, and brought her bear inside a backpack. However, the bag was stolen. Soriano's teddy bear is so important to her because it has a push-button that allows her to hear the last message of her mom, who died of cancer.
Soriano told BBC that she lost her teddy bear when she was unloading a van with her fiance, and she received a sudden phone call from a friend who had a biking accident.
Upon rushing up to help her friend, Mara put her backpack down next to the van, but Soriano forgot to tell her fiance where she left the backpack that contained the teddy bear. The unattended bag disappeared after a few minutes. Security footage showed a man took off the bag.
Soriano came to Canada from the Philippines as a child having the bear as her last reminder of the mom she grew up with before her mom had cancer. Mara's mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. For seven years, her mom's condition appeared to be stable. However, Soriano's mom got sicker in 2018. Soriano received the teddy bear June of last year as a gift from her mom before she died.
Mara Soriano took to her Twitter to appeal. She immediately gained support from celebrities, including the Vancouver born and actor Ryan Reynolds who offered a $5,000 reward for the bear to be returned to Soriano.
George Stroumboulpoulos, the Canadian TV presenter, also matched Reynold's reward.
On Tuesday night, Mara received a message from someone claiming to have found the bear. Mara decided to meet two men in a public place, and one of them handed the bear. Soriano told the Canadian Press, "I'm not going to lie, I buckled. As soon as I saw (him) pull her out of the bag, my knees just buckled. I just started sobbing, and I grabbed her out of his hands, and I couldn't let her go."
Soriano also said that the men told her they watched the security footage of the theft and recognized the thief and retrieved the bear from the theft. Meanwhile, according to USA Today, Ryan Reynolds shared the good news on Wednesday via Twitter that Mara Soriano reunited with her teddy bear that has the recorded voice of her mother. "In happier news... Thank you, everyone, who searched high and low to the person who took the bear, thanks for keeping it safe. Vancouver is awesome," Reynolds said.
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