The internet's helping a woman reunite with a stuffed elephant she lost at San Francisco International Airport. (The one pictured is close, but not it.)
If you see a stuffed blue elephant at San Francisco International Airport, you could potentially brighten one person's day.
A Portland-area woman en route to St. Petersburg, Russia to go back to school sent out a call for help on Reddit about a beloved blue elephant plush she believes she lost at SFO. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.
The woman stored the plush in a carry-on tote bag underneath her seat during her Jan. 10 flight, she explained in the post.
"I think I lost it," she said, "on my way out of the arrivals level to the international terminal, since I was outside and in a rush pushing some rather heavy suitcases."
She explained that she most likely lost it while waiting for a connecting Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul, mulling about while she waited to board.
But it was only after she arrived at St. Petersburg that she realized she lost her toy. Since then, she's reached out to every airport she stopped at to no avail.
Redditors responded to her loss kindly: Some are taking it upon themselves to call and email SFO; she's based out of St. Petersburg for the time being, so international calls are out of the question. One user even offered to help her purchase a similar toy, which she said she won out of a "crane machine" a decade ago.
"I realize that a toy isn’t very important, but it meant a lot to me and I’m honestly devastated," she said, and would be "incredibly grateful" for any leads that could reunite her with the toy.
If you'd like to help, a ring or email to SFO from a few kind strangers may help speed the process up. Representatives for SFO did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.
Joshua Bote is an assistant news editor for SFGATE. He grew up in the Los Angeles area, went to UC Berkeley and has previously worked as a reporter at USA Today and a music writer at NPR. Email: joshua.bote@sfgate.com