An Alabama Woman Sees a Teddy Bear in a Garbage Pile. She Grabs it for a Dog Toy, and Inside of it She Discovers Ashes and a Note

A woman from Lauderdale County was driving through Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with her daughter and happened to see a stuffed teddy bear in a garbage pile. She thought it might make a good chew toy for her dog, so she stopped to grab it from the trash. When she opens a secret pouch in the teddy bear, she finds ashes inside the bear along with a note.

An Alabama Woman and Daughter Find a Teddy Bear on a Garbage Pile

WHNT News 19 reported that Vicki Wise and her daughter were just driving through a random Muscle Shoals neighborhood when her daughter saw a teddy bear in someone's garbage pile. They decided to stop and grab it as a chew toy for their dog.

When they got home, Vicki inspected the teddy bear closer and saw the embroidered words "Forever in My Heart" on the bear's left foot. She then found a secret pouch inside the teddy bear, which "held a little heart-shaped box with a person's ashes inside." 

On the front of the bear's foot are the words "Forever in My Heart" embroidered and "Barry Freed" on the back. A note attached to the back of the box read: "Barry Freed passed away on May 20, 2020."

Many people have wondered if Barry Freed was a human baby or even a pet. That is something that Vicki would sure like to know.

Vicki Wise speaking to WHNT News 19

No Information Found Online on Barry Freed

WHNT News 19 reported that Vicki Wise tried to do an internet search on the name Barry Freed, but she did not find any information about Barry Freed or the family.

She said:

"I don't know who he is. All I know is his name and the date he passed away," Wise said. "I don't know where he is from. I don't know anything about him, but I do know that he had to be loved, and I know that the person he belongs to is missing him." -Vicki Wise

If anyone has any information about Barry Freed, please contact WHNT News 19. 

Do you think the ashes of Barry Freed were from a baby, a child, or an adult?

Source

Willmon, Addison. "Alabama woman finds trashed teddy bear with human ashes inside." WHNT News 19. Published: 4 January 2023. Updated: 5 January 2023.

*My original article was first published on Newsbreak on January 15, 2023, and received over 1,000,000 views.

A Seattle Woman Finds an Urn with a Blue Ribbon on it in Goodwill with a Name on the Bottom & Has Ashes Inside. She Buys it for $3.99

A woman shopping at Goodwill discovers an urn with a blue ribbon tied around it sold under the category of "wares." On the bottom of the urn, it has a name written on it. She opens it and sees ashes inside. She decides to buy it for $3.99 from Goodwill and was trying to locate the family connected to the ashes. Goodwill has retrieved the ashes from her and has also attempted to find out if these belong to a human.

Josie Chase with the urn she purchased

One Seattle, Washington woman that has discovered a love for "thrifting" found something unusual for sale at her local Goodwill, and now is unsure what to do with the item.

Seattle Woman Finds a Blue-Ribbon Urn in Goodwill

24-year-old Josie Chase was in her local Goodwill, and looking for something very interesting among the housewares. Yahoo! reported that Josie "has been collecting vintage clothing and accessories since 2018."

Josie came across a small urn with a blue ribbon tied around it, and she "immediately identified it as a cremation urn."

She said:

"It just kind of shocked me that there was an urn there," Chase said. "So I grabbed it and felt that it had some weight to it and looked at the bottom and saw that I had a name." -Josie Chase (Source: Yahoo!)

When she looked at the bottom of the urn, there is a sticker with the name, "Toby Cava." She assumes this is the name of the person that was cremated. The picture can be seen below.

Urn with name on bottom

Next Josie did what any curious person would do. She unscrewed it and looked inside, and sure enough, found ashes. She assumes these are human ashes.

She said:

"Then, I unscrewed it and saw that there were ashes inside," Chase said. "It was just kind of shocking and struck me and I thought, ‘Who would donate this? This is sad. It must have been a mistake or someone must have misplaced it.’ So, I thought maybe I could find someone who it was connected to [and] give it back." -Josie Chase (Source: Yahoo!)

The picture of the ashes in the urn can be seen below.

Urn with ashes inside

Josie tried to speak to a Goodwill worker about the urn, but since the store was busy, it was difficult. So she decided to buy it for $3.99. The Goodwill price tag labeled it as "wares."

She said:

"I just put it in our cart and me and my partner were like, ‘Well, if we don't get it, this will maybe go to the landfill or something.' We thought we should do it service and spread the ashes somewhere nice or try to find at least a good home for it. So, we decided to buy it," -Josie Chase (Source: Yahoo!)

Josie Chase Posts a TikTok Video About the Urn

Josie posts a TikTok video showing the urn inside of Goodwill in Washington and shows the urn being opened to reveal ashes.

In captions, text in the video reads, "Who donated this person to Goodwill?"

Then the TikTok video shows the urn wrapped in brown paper and the caption reads, "The cashier wrapped him up so nicely." See the picture below.

Urn wrapped in a brown paper

The video ends by saying in captions, "Toby was only $4."

Watch the TikTok video and see for yourself. It has been viewed over 13 million times.

It isn't every day that a person finds an urn filled with ashes at Goodwill, but it does happen.

One person that commented on the TikTok video said:

"The people could have dumped the ashes while driving down the highway and it would have been more respectful than dropping them at goodwill." -User7477347178750 on TikTok

Josie replied to the comment, by saying, "Agreed."

Goodwill workers should probably look inside things while they are pricing the items in the back, just to make sure there aren't any ashes inside.

Josie now believes that it could be pet ashes based on feedback she has received on her TikTok video.

Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington Retrieved the Urn with Ashes

Fox News Digital reported that Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington contacted Josie and retrieved the urn with ashes, and also commented that they believe it was an animal's ashes, and not humans, and that the urn should have never made it out onto the sales floor.

Evergreen Goodwill has also reached out to funeral homes in case these ashes might be human.

Please share this article on social media so others can be informed about this story.

Sources

Josie Chase on TikTok: @chasejosie. Video about urn bought in Goodwill.

Eichenberg, Gretchen. "Washington woman makes 'shocking' discovery after purchasing $3.99 urn at Goodwill." Yahoo! / Fox News Digital. 14 April 2023.