A woman is thanking the owner of a Richer Manitoba gas station for keeping her sentimental teddy bear safe.
The mystery was solved on Monday – Tracey Snow is the owner of the teddy.
She said the bear holds the ashes of her parents, something she holds onto when she’s feeling down.
“We didn't actually notice it was missing because our stuff is in storage," Snow said.
Her family was moving from Nova Scotia to Edmonton when they stopped at the gas station to fill up.
Hubert Perrin, the owner of the station, said he came across the teddy on Dec. 9 after a gas jockey found it on the ground near one of the pumps.
Perrin said staff really didn't think much of it until they noticed something hard inside its tummy.
A staff member then opened up a Velcro pouch on the side and found a golden container with what appeared to be ashes inside it.
Perrin said he consulted with a former employee who currently works in the funeral business, to find out if this could actually be the ashes of somebody's loved one.
The former employee told Perrin that was likely the case.
Knowing whoever dropped it would be missing it, Perrin began the search to find the rightful owner.
He pulled the surveillance video from that night which shows a woman stepping out of the passenger side of a black Dodge truck that was pulling a U-Haul trailer.
The bear fell onto the ground and the driver of the truck pulls away because there was someone behind him waiting to use the pump.
Unfortunately, the license plate was covered in slush and is not readable on the video.
Perrin was able to pull the receipt from the transaction, but there wasn't enough information to link it to a name.
Perrin and the rest of the staff at the gas station are happy they found the rightful owner before Christmas.
“It was a miracle. It was a total miracle and I am so thankful," said Snow.
The plan is to send the bear to family in Nova Scotia while she gets settled in Alberta.
