SKUKUZA – So far the car-rental company Hertz has not had any luck in finding the owner of the so called Kruger teddy-bear. The soft toy was left in a rental car rented out a month ago at OR Tambo Airport to a Dutch couple, Hylke Walters and Sander Leenstra.

They took the teddy as a mascot on their trip to the Kruger National Park (KNP) after they found her stuck away behind a seat, obviously left-behind.

Walters is a dog trainer and teacher from Caleppe aan den Ijjsel near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She is very concerned about the Kruger teddy’s owner being heartbroken over the loss of her soft toy.

“You can see that she cuddled it a lot,” said Walters.

The teddy became quite famous when as temporary foster-mother Walters made a video of her ‘visit’ with them to the KNP to enable her to search for the owner.

Teddy became a good ambassador for the park with her travels and adventures with zebras, rhinos and elephants. Photographs of her and her Kruger adventures have been widely circulated and a video of her visit is popular on You Tube.

Her now familiar fluffy face was on Dutch television. She has her own Facebook page: Where is my mommy?

The Kruger Teddy also has people across the globe talking, sharing and searching information in hope to reunite her with her owner.

The search however is not easy and despite all the help she is still whiling time away in the Netherlands.

Margie Gawith, communication consultant to Hertz, said to Lowvelder that the Hertz branch manager at OR Tambo Airport identified a particular customer that might help with the search. She remembered the family that dropped the vehicle at OR Tambo included a little girl dressed all in pink and tracked the rental contract.

It seems this client lives in Dubai as his driver’s licence was issued in that country. He supplied an address in Port Elizabeth as his home address.

This put the rental company on a search to this address in Port Elizabeth but unfortunately it was a dead-end as the house owner has never rented a car before.

Hertz made numerous calls and emails to previous clients who have rented the car. Gawith has asked the Kruger teddy fans “to be patient, the Hertz team is doing its best to reunite her with her owner.”

https://www.citizen.co.za/lowvelder/371649/lowvelder-story-tip-off/