A happy ending in Milwaukee! A teddy bear found at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport was reunited with its 5-year-old owner, Ezekiel Burnett, on Tuesday morning, Feb. 15.
was reunited with its 5-year-old owner, Ezekiel Burnett, on Tuesday morning, Feb. 15.
Ezekiel and his parents, who are from Dallas, Texas, had been visiting relatives in Oconomowoc for the Thanksgiving holiday last year. When they were at the airport to return home, that is when Teddy became "lost.""He was tossing it up in the air, you know -- kids. And he tossed it a little bit too high, and it got stuck up in the rafters," said David Burnett, Ezekiel's dad. "And I looked at it and said, 'Nope, that's there. It's not coming back down.
"The staff at MKE airport and Southwest Airlines has been amazing through this entire experience'," Burnett said.The airports social posts went viral in part because some comments indicated that kind of bear was given to children with heart defects. Ezekiel is a healthy 5-year-old boy with a healthy heart. But his parents are thrilled this story could raise awareness about children with heart defects. Officials with MKE noted its social posts about the bear set all-time records for the airport's accounts. The Facebook post reached 1.9 million people, the TikTok post reached 1.8 million – and more than 400,000 people were reached on Twitter.
"And now as a result, MKE has more TikTok followers than any other airport in the world," said Harold Mester, Director of Public Affairs and Marketing, Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.