Toy finds its way back home after being left over 1,500 miles

SAN BENITO, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — Imagine forgetting an item you hold dear more than 1,500 miles away from home.

This is the situation a Rio Grande Valley mother and child found themselves in when he forgot his limited-edition toy in California.

Luckily, they got it back thanks to the help of a good samaritan.

Nine-year-old Derek Silva went on vacation with his family to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Once returning home, he realized he left his toy gorilla, Elliot, at the hotel.

His mother, Yvette Ortega, immediately called the hotel who said they could not ship the toy and it had to be picked up in person.

“I was like, great,” Ortega said. “How am I going to pick up this gorilla in person if I live in Texas and they’re in California, and my boss was like, oh, why don’t you put it on Facebook?”

That’s exactly what Ortega did and found Josie Ortega from Rio Hondo, who stepped in to help after the post was shared numerous times.

Josie was on vacation in California at the time and drove an hour away from her destination to pick up the toy at the hotel. However, there was still one small hiccup for Elliot’s return.

“On Sunday, she contacts me that her plane got delayed and she’s not coming home,” Yvette said. “And I was like, oh, okay, you know, it’s too good to be true. It’s not going to happen. I’m not even going to tell anything to my little boy because if that is going to be disappointed again, you know, as it is, he would cry.”

However, Josie did take a flight and arrived on Monday documenting her and Elliot’s journey the whole way home. The reunion months in the making happened in San Benito.

Yvette hopes the whole situation allows her son to learn the importance of helping others.

“When you do good, good comes back to you, you know, and to appreciate and always say thank you,” Yvette said. “Because, like I said, Josie didn’t have to do this, but she went out of her way to do this for us to make Derek happy.”

Yvette says that she continues to stay in contact with Josie and Derek has now found new friends with Josie’s daughters.

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