UPI – In a heartwarming incident, a pilot extended a helping hand to reunite an American Girl doll with its young owner, after it was inadvertently left behind at a Tokyo airport.
The heart-tugging tale unfolds when Rudy and Celeste Dominguez, upon their return to the United States (US) from a family vacation in Bali, Indonesia, make a disheartening discovery – their nine-year-old daughter Valentina’s cherished doll, Beatrice, was nowhere to be found.
The doll’s last known location was aboard a plane during the family’s layover in Tokyo.
“We checked our bags to see if maybe she was in there but we all remembered seeing her on the plane so once we did the search, didn’t find her, we called the airline and then we sent an e-mail to the airline looking for her,” Rudy Dominguez told Good Morning America.
Valentina Dominguez said Beatrice is her favourite toy. “She brings me happiness and she’s my best friend,” she said. “When she was missing, when we got settled into our hotel, I felt very bad. I felt like my heart was broken.”
The parents posted about the lost doll on Facebook, and the post came to the attention of James Danen, an American Airlines pilot based out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Danen reached out to Turkish Airlines’ lost-and-found at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and was able to locate Beatrice. He personally escorted the doll across the globe, snapping photos for Valentina at various airports along the way.
Danen delivered the doll to the girl in person this week. “I felt over the moon,” Valentina said.
“I knew Beatrice was gonna be mad at me but I was happy that I could see her again.”
Danen said he was happy to make the reunion possible. “I was really glad I could do something nice for somebody,” he told WFAA-TV.
