How Pittsburgh Rallied to Get a Stuffed Bunny Back Home

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, a volunteer at Pittsburgh International Airport found a stuffed bunny that had been accidentally left behind at the airport. By that evening, over 100,000 people were looking for its owner.

Ken Kendall, one of PIT’s volunteer Ambassadors, saw the bunny sitting on a baggage claim carousel on Tuesday morning. Patti Getty, a Customer Service Agent of nearly 11 years, said Kendall brought the bunny to the Information Desk and said, “Someone is surely missing this.”

Getty agreed – and she had an idea.

“I wanted to take the bunny and show what Pittsburgh airport is like,” Getty said.

PIT’s social media team followed the bunny on its journey around the airport and recorded a video with a plea to find the owner of the lost stuffed animal.

 

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The posts took off, eventually garnering over 100,000 views across social media channels.

“This is so sweet! I hope this little bunny is reunited with its owner soon!” one commentor on Instagram wrote.

“Please share an update when this beloved friend finds his bestie!” another Instagram user said.

A sudden reunion

The next day, PIT’s Customer Service Desk got a call from Judy Kidd, who asked about a lost phone. Sure enough, the airport had it.

She and her husband Jake had just flown back home from San Jose, California. The couple, from Flushing, Ohio, connected through Orlando before arriving back in Pittsburgh. They were traveling with family, including their 5-year-old great-granddaughter Waylynn, who had a special companion with her throughout the trip: a stuffed bunny.

Before Kidd hung up the phone, she asked one more question: Was there any chance the airport had found a stuffed bunny?

Sharon Barley, customer service supervisor at PIT, sent Kidd a photo of the bunny, and Kidd was overjoyed.

It was Waylynn’s.

The Kidds arrived at PIT that same day to retrieve the lost phone and stuffed bunny.

The bunny, appropriately named Bunny, has belonged to Waylynn for years. It was a gift from her grandmother.

 

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When the Kidds saw the reaction to the lost bunny on social media, they were in shock.

“Wait until Waylynn finds out,” Kidd said with tears in her eyes. “I honestly thought the bunny was in Orlando.”

The Pittsburgh community works together

This isn’t the first time PIT’s customer service team has reunited a beloved lost item with its owner.

In 2023, PIT team member April Laukaitis found a diamond on one of the airport’s bathroom floors. That diamond belonged to passenger Kristen Tunno and was part of a ring she received from her 99-year-old grandmother. Last year, the team found passenger Meg Ely’s missing journal, which contained details from her two-week long trip across Europe. Both Tunno and Ely were reunited with their lost items shortly after they realized they were gone.

“Everyone wants to help everybody,” Getty said. “We stick together. We help each other out no matter what it is. We’re a team.”

When asked if the feeling of reuniting a passenger with an important item ever gets old, Getty responded almost instantly.

“It never does,” she said. “Here, this job that we do, every person that comes to the desk, or walks by – there’s a reason why they’re here. We sit here to help them to make it the easiest trip they can take.”