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Original poster

Lost Teddy on Airplane

36 replies

Newlyseparated2022 · 23/04/2025 00:15

My daughter's most precious teddy has been left on an airplane and I don't know what else I can do. I didn't travel with her and he was missed when they left the aircraft and he's been left behind.

She realised as soon as they arrived back home and the lost property forms were filled in immediately. He hasn't been booked in yet. I've been back to the lost property desk at the airport and the check in desk. The staff on the check in desk said aircraft cleaners had probably thrown him away if he hadn't been booked in by now. I've spent hours emailing and ringing various ground handling companies to see who would have cleared the aircraft and the inflight blankets but nothing. I have friends that know cabin crew and they have shared his picture far and wide. I have also joined local Facebook groups around the airport hoping to capture any staff that might work in the cleaning services. I don't know what else I can do.

She's heartbroken. She keeps randomly crying when she thinks of him and asks me when he will be back and talking about all the things she would like to do with him. She cried herself to sleep last night and says she doesn't know how many more nights she can sleep without him.

Obviously I'm comforting her, reassuring her I'm doing what I can without making any promises and saying that he'll come back. I don't get upset around her just let her cry, keep her busy and talk about him when she wants to.

I keep being offered replacements for him, which is kind, but it wouldn't be her bunny and she already keeps getting upset by her other teddies.

I don't know what I'm expecting from this post really. It's been a really hard few days.

OP posts:
coxesorangepippin · 23/04/2025 02:42

Do you have a photo of Ted

Maxorias · 23/04/2025 03:33

Hey OP,

Happened to me in a train station. Fortunately said teddy had been made by me so I expressly made a new one. Can you buy a new one and put it through the washer a few times so it doesn't look so new ? If your DD says it looks different you can tell her it's because he had to swim all the way bacl from (exotic destination) and tell her all about all the adventures teddy had on the way?

autisticbookworm · 23/04/2025 03:44

I’d either purchase the same bear. Or make it an adventure that he’s off on his travels, send postcards to her from teddy reassuring her teddy is fine.
We also left teddy on a plane once but thankfully realised on the tarmac and a staff member retrieved him.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Toys
Sandandsea123 · 23/04/2025 05:22

There’s a group on Facebook called “lostbox” - it’s more of a UK wide than local group, could try them?

TheCountofMountingCrispBags · 23/04/2025 08:04

Good time to learn a life lesson. Nothing is forever, sometimes pets/people die, sometimes they get lost.
Yes, it's sad, but shit happens. Just explain that even if we do look after things precious to us, they can disappear from one's life. Similarly, if something is important and precious, we have to take extra care of it.

Lulu1919 · 23/04/2025 08:08

We had this ....
Our daughter was 6
So we played a game - we would think which places he was visiting etc
It did calm down after a few weeks

RabbitsRock · 23/04/2025 08:12

Aww OP - hate the thought of any soft toy just being thrown away. If I was a cleaner, I would always keep any that I found & try my absolute best to reunite them with their owners. I temporarily lost my oldest teddy bear in my early 20s & was heartbroken! So happy to have him returned. I really hope your DD’s bunny finds his or her way home 🐇❤️🐇

Radiatorvalves · 23/04/2025 08:13

Good luck OP. When DS was 2 we left his favourite teddy on a ferry. Speedferries. Sadly they went bust, but they were brilliant. After a few calls they confirmed they’d found him and a lady was there on the ramp 3 weeks later holding said teddy when we returned to England. We had all sorts of contingencies but fortunately they weren’t needed.

LaMadrilena · 23/04/2025 08:18

Hi! We had the same situation. I posted everywhere I could think of - here, Facebook, online list item pages - and eventually one of the ground crew got in touch and brought him back to our house, along with a load of photos of his adventures!

Apparently when the flight crew sweep the plane, any important lost property is handed to the handling company, and I'm told an obviously well-loved teddy would be considered important.

So post everywhere you can think of and get in touch with the handling company (eg Swissport in my case) as well as the airline and airport.

Good luck!

mummytoonetryingfortwo · 23/04/2025 08:21

Buy a new bear (and three backups) and tell her it looks refreshed because it’s been on holiday.

TinkerbellStarbright · 23/04/2025 08:23

Do you have a photo of it?

MrsBennetsPoorNerves · 23/04/2025 08:26

I feel your pain, OP. I lost a precious bunny around 45 years ago, and I cried about it for years. Tbh, I still feel sad about it now.

My parents told me that it had gone off on all sorts of new and exciting adventures. Could you photoshop the bunny into some pictures of famous places and get it to "send" postcards to your dd of all of the different places it is visiting?

Mischance · 23/04/2025 08:30

Lulu1919 · 23/04/2025 08:08

We had this ....
Our daughter was 6
So we played a game - we would think which places he was visiting etc
It did calm down after a few weeks

I did this when DD, then about 4, let go the string of her beloved kite on top of the Malvern Hills.... we had to watch it flying away over the panoramic view for ages.
We made up stories about where it flew to, which other little girls found it and played with it, and who they were and where they lived and what their lives were like and how happy it had made them.

alcoholnightmare · 23/04/2025 09:45

Let’s see a picture @Newlyseparated2022… hopefully a MN users child may be happy to post theirs to your daughter

Jamandtoastfortea · 23/04/2025 16:04

Which airline was it? Have you contacted them on social media? Usually lost property on board goes to the list property desk of the airport you arrived in. Have you checked there? But randomly if it wasn’t spotted it will have flown back accidentally and be at the lost property desk of the returning airport. I doubt cleaning staff will Chuck away a teddy and if it is easyJet / Ryanair etc, it’s the cabin crew that clean and tidy on the turn around any way. Don’t give up yet.

kurotora · 23/04/2025 16:26

My sympathies. We had this happen in the airport on the way to our destination, we knew exactly where Cow had been dropped but they told us it had most likely been thrown away. Really not very interested. As a precaution I bought a new one online and had it posted to grandparents - we told DD they’d picked Cow up and taken him home, and had washed him up nicely for her - which is why he looked lovely and new again. Glad she was young enough for that ruse. 🫣

If you think it might work, you could try that. Say her teddy was found by the cleaners and they gave it a really good clean for her?

somanythingssolittletime · 23/04/2025 16:33

This happened to me as a child, similar age. I remember being heartbroken. I also remember my parents dismissing me and just taking me to the store to buy a new one. I hated the new one, despite being exactly the same. Eventually I chose another stuffed toy, one that was brought to me as a birthday gift by a school friend. And I got over the lost one.
I suggest to sumpathise, show her you are doing your best to retrieve it, but if you don’t then don’t push her to choose another one or buy her the same one. Let her live the grief and she will get over it in her own time.

Merlinsparks · 23/04/2025 16:51

Please someone find the bunny 😢🙏
I really do feel for you OP. This happened to my son the year before when we were in Corfu.
He insisted on taking his own bunny out with us for dinner and then couldn’t find it at the end of the evening. We were due to go home the next day and he was beside himself as we raced around the resort. We went to reception and the bars and restaurants on site but they were all shutting.
Just as we were about to go to bed, I spotted a door open in one of the bars and the lady in there was just shutting up. I asked her if she had found a brown bunny and there he was sat on her counter for safe keeping.
I could have kissed her.
I was dreading the heartbreak from my son but he did turn up. Now he’s 10, he barely shows any interest in bunny but I was also deeply upset because it had such sentimental value to me.
Keep the faith. You never know he might just turn up. One thing I thought of doing was get a replica, put it in the wash a few times and then return it in the post.
I know it’s not the same but depending on her age and scepticism, is that a possibility?

TheNightingalesStarling · 23/04/2025 16:56

Can you work out where the airplane went next, and try lost property there?

Ineedpeaceandquiet · 23/04/2025 16:59

Hope you find it OP!!

Dixie43 · 23/04/2025 20:56

There's a post on Glasgow mums group on facebook. A toy bunny was found at the pick up point at Glasgow airport.

wonderpetsrus · 23/04/2025 21:06

hope You find it. In meantime read Knuffle bunny books by Mo Willems it may help

Dixie43 · 23/04/2025 21:06

The post on Facebook.

Lost Teddy on Airplane
WhereAreMyKids · 23/04/2025 21:10

Ahh mate I feel you, my DC recently lost his soft toy when out and I'm lying through my teeth until the replacement gets here. I might have to run it over with the car a few times to get the right kinda worn in feeling 🤣 after this I'm getting a collar with an ID tag for it!