Ryan Reynolds Offers $ 5,000 Reward For Stolen Build-A-Bear Reproducing Message From Owner’s Late Mother

Ryan Reynolds is used to playing a superhero on the big screen, but the Canadian actor is also willing to help near home.

On Saturday, Reynolds, 43, took to Twitter to offer a $ 5,000 reward to anyone who locates a lost teddy bear in his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia. But it turns out that the stuffed animal is much more than an average lost toy.

Vancouver: $ 5,000 for anyone who returns this bear to Mara. Zero questions asked. I think we all need this bear to go home, “Reynolds wrote, retweeting the original post from a city journalist.

The story behind the teddy bear was revealed in a CBC article and has proven to be truly heartbreaking. Turns out Mara is actually Mara Soriano, 28, who said her mother’s voice was recorded and put into the custom Build-A-Bear shortly after she entered a hospice.

“In the hospice her voice was different. Much softer. Not with the mother I grew up with,” Soriano told CBC. “That bear is the last memory I have of her speaking in her normal voice. She said she loved me and was proud of me and will always be with me.”

The recording was the final message from her mother, Marilyn Soriano, who died of cancer in June 2019 at age 53.

The bear disappeared as Soriano and his fiance unloaded a van from U-Haul after moving to Vancouver on Friday. When a friend who was riding a bicycle to help them unpack said he had been hit by a van, Soriano immediately dropped everything to help. In an “exhausted state,” she ignored her belongings. When he returned, they checked each box and even consulted the U-Haul company, only to find that the bag containing the bear was missing. Finally, they approached the building to obtain security images.

“Look at the security footage, this guy was seen looking around, making sure no one was looking first,” Soriano told CBC. “And he just took the bag and ran.”

While the bag also contained important documents like a blank checkbook, Soriano’s citizenship card, the couple’s social security cards, and passports, what he wants most to gather is the memory of his mother. Soriano said it is an important reminder of the Philippines, where he emigrated at age 9.

“It is a reminder of home,” he said. “The bear has a message in Filipino. It says ‘I love you’, but in our language. Therefore, it is very specific and unique.”