New Jersey Turnpike Workers To Reunite 12-Year-Old Boy With Lost Teddy Bear
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 12-year-old New York boy is being reunited with his beloved teddy bear that he lost on a family road trip to North Carolina.
From the time he was a baby, Alex Hernandez and "Beary" have been inseparable.
"Sometimes I can get very scared at night...and when I hug him I feel like I'm in this safe place," Hernandez told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
It wasn't until his family arrived in the Outer Banks from New City last week that he realized Beary was missing.
"I was in shock," Hernandez said. "I felt like I couldn't really go on without him."
"He was pretty upset," his mother, Julissa Viana, said. "He was pretty devastated by the whole thing."
Viana suspected Beary had fallen out of the car at a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop, so she tweeted the agency for help.
Lost my son's beloved #Bear. Please help! #Lost sb @njturnpike #reststop - we think Walt Whitman lot. @TyInc pic.twitter.com/wlopIXf6f9
— Julissa Viana (@JulissaViana) August 7, 2016
Lost: my son's beloved #TeddyBear. Please help! Lost on sb @njturnpike #reststop-we think Walt Whitman lot. Old pic pic.twitter.com/MSWCfEO1QM
— Julissa Viana (@JulissaViana) August 8, 2016
"I put it on Twitter and literally the next day the New Jersey Turnpike team reached out to me," Viana said.
About 24-hours later, the agency sent her a picture of a bear and asked, "Is this him?"
It was Beary.
OMG! I cannot believe @NJTurnpike has found my son's #teddybear. You have made my son so happy. THANK YOU! https://t.co/FndFxiJiC4
— Julissa Viana (@JulissaViana) August 8, 2016
Hernandez said when he received the good news he kept smiling and saying, "I can't believe it."
The boy said he can't wait to be reunited with his friend.
"Just hug him and talk to him about how much I missed him," Hernandez said.