When Ivelise Hernandez and her boyfriend were passing through the St. Petersburg, Floria airport a few years ago, they witnessed something they couldn’t just ignore.
Ahead of them in the airport security line, a TSA agent forced a man to throw a sentimental gift in the trash.
The reason being? It contained liquid and the rules were the rules. However, that didn’t make the situation any less unpalatable — mainly because of the contents of the snow globe. Inside were pictures of the man’s daughter along with a puppy on one side, and pictures of the girl’s grandparents on the other. It was a gift from the grandparents that the man was bringing home for his daughter Katie who lived in Ohio.
It also had this beautiful message lovingly written beneath one of the photos:
“WE LOVE YOU KATIE, NANA AND PAPA”
After the man was told he couldn’t bring the snow globe through security, he even went back and tried to check it at the airline counter where he had no luck either. Ultimately, he had to through the gift in the trash and rush to his gate so he wouldn’t miss his flight.
Hernandez witnessed the whole thing and couldn’t believe it.
She had her boyfriend remove the snow globe from the trash and bring it home with him while she continued on her flight to Pittsburgh. However, when she returned from her trip, she made a post on Facebook about the snow globe, hoping to track down the owners so she could return it to them.
“The guy looked at the officer and said, Could I leave it at the airport in the lost in found so his parents could come get it because its his adopted child snow globe? And the officer replied ‘Put it in file 13’ and pointed at the garbage can,” Hernandez wrote in the post.
After it was confirmed that leaving the snow globe in the lost and found wasn’t an option, the man was forced to deposit it straight into “file 13”, otherwise known as the trash.
“We felt bad about the situation and want to find out who these people are so we can return their gift out of the kindness of our hearts , we wouldn’t want this to happen to us, so if everybody could please share this photo so we can find the owners of this beautiful family 🙏🏻 and give them back their precious gift,” Hernandez wrote.
Much to Hernandez’s surprise, her post soon went viral and ended up being shared thousands of times over the course of the day.
Ultimately, the story had an extremely happy ending too. The post eventually found its way in front of the grandparents who were then able to stop by and pick up the snow globe.
The grandparents told Fox News that their granddaughter was devastated when they first told her she wouldn’t be getting her snow globe anymore.
However, now that it is once again in their possession, they plan on delivering it to Katie in a safer fashion.
In order to avoid a repeat, they will pack it with them in their checked luggage next time when they travel to Ohio in the future.
We are so happy that the sentimental snow globe didn’t end up in the trash. And really, all it took was one small act of kindness by Hernandez and her boyfriend, along with the power of the Internet to totally save the day.
Check out the full video of the story from Fox 13 News below.
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