Lost rent-a-car KNP-teddy now a celeb with own FB-page
The pink teddy bear that was left in a rental car and "experienced" the Kruger National Park with two Dutch tourists has become quite an ambassador for the KNP as the video of its visit went viral and she became a celebrity on Dutch television.
SKUKUZA – When Hylke Walters and her partner Sander Leenstra from Caleppe aan den Ijssell, close to Rotterdam in the Netherlands rented a car from Hertz at the branch in Oliver Tambo Airport for their vacation in the Lowveld, especially the Kruger National Park, she found a lost pink teddy bear in the back of the car.
The car rental company could not help at that time with finding the owner and she decided to make the teddy an onlooker on their whole trip, with the view of putting the video that it featured in, online to find the little owner of the bear.
The video went viral and the lost teddy now has her own facebook page (Where is my mommy) with almost 200 friends and is a celebrity on Dutch television after it was featured on various news programs like Hart van Nederland channel.
The car rental company has sent e-mails and made phone calls countrywide to customers who rented the car before Walters and Leenstra.
Margie Haworth, marketing consultant of Hertz, said to Lowvelder that it might take a while because the teddy was “firmly wedged between the seats and might not have been visible for ages. The car might have a long rental history. We are doing our best.”
Walters said to Lowvelder today that “teddy is making friends allover the Netherlands and now has friends from all over the world interested in the KNP as a park as well.”
Walters decided after finding the teddy in the car to give it the best vacation ever with the hope that her video with teddy in the Kuger goes viral.
“We need all the help we can get. Somewhere out there is a little girl crying for her bear. It is our mission to reunite the two.”
She said that the help of Lowvelder‘s onliners “was fantastic.”
“I am so sad for the little girl. In our younger years we all always had one beloved teddy. Everybody can relate to the heartache it gives when you suddenly lose it. I want her to find it back because the bear was obviously loved intensely since it looks very used and very much hugged,” said Hylke.
She is a former school teacher who now devotes her life to training dogs. She loves dogs, but at present is the owner of only one.
Walters is prepared to courier the teddy anywhere in the world to reunite the bear with her rightful owner. She asked anyone who can help to contact her hylke77@gmail.com or on Facebook Hylke Walters.
