Toronto woman launches social media campaign to locate owner of lost teddy bear on TTC
Rhonda Riche spotted the stuffed polar bear on subway car at High Park station
Rhonda Riche said she needed an escape from the heat on Monday.
She caught an eastbound train from High Park subway station toward her favourite Vietnamese restaurant with her husband around 5 p.m..
When the doors of the train opened Riche noticed a peculiar passenger on board.
"I noticed this little polar bear sitting by himself on a seat," she said over Facebook messenger. "He wasn't totally alone—somebody had left him some chocolate chip cookies."
Lost and found was closed, so Riche launched a social media campaign to help find the bear's owner.
Riche posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Craigslist and Bunz, that has collectively generated over 1,500 likes and counting.
Riche named the stuffed animal Ossington bear. The TTC then started using the hashtag "Ossingtonbear" on Twitter.
"I have faith in Toronto the Good and that we'll be able to reunite Ossington Bear with his buddies quickly," said Riche.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OssingtonBear?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OssingtonBear</a> LET'S GET THIS LIL GUY HOME, TORONTO! <a href="https://t.co/UZsTJCINR1">https://t.co/UZsTJCINR1</a>
—@laurainspaaaceTTC receives thousands of lost items a year
Stuart Green, media relations and issues management specialist at TTC, says that each year the lost and found receives 50,000 items.
He said this year they've returned about 31 per cent of lost items—367 of those items were categorized as toys.
Riche said that if she's unable to locate the owners of the bear, she will take it to the TTC lost and found.
Once there, it will remain for 60 days before being auctioned at Police Auctions Canada.