Employees at the Publix store in Daphne, Alabama helped a little girl to recover her lost stuffed bunny.  

Jenna Rachal says her 3-year-old daughter lost her stuffed bunny while they were shopping at Publix in on Thursday. When little Madison realized her favorite bunny was gone the next day, she and her mom went back to the store. They asked employees to keep an eye out for the bunny. But no one knew at the time that the bunny was already headed down a path paved with trash to a filthy fate, that the bunny would be crushed and buried in a pile of garbage. 

Rachal posted a plea on Facebook asking for anyone who might have information leading to the return of Madison’s favorite toy. The post was shared more than 1,500 times and made its way back to Publix and to its manager, Mike Gayheart. 

Gayheart and his employees set out to find her fuzzy bunny. They started by checking the surveillance video. And there it was, a lonely bunny perched in a shopping cart. They watched as the bunny was carted towards a trash can and dumped.

The video showed the trash can emptied in to a compactor, the compactor emptied into the dumpster, then later the dumpster emptied into a garbage truck. Bunny was on its way to meet its dirty destiny at the landfill. 

Many would have given up right then, but not the crew from Publix. Gayheart assembled his team, loaded up and headed to the landfill. Madison’s mom tells the story from there: 

😜

 So, Mike, the amazing manager at Publix in Daphne + 3 additional employees went to the landfill to dig for bunny and FOUND HIM! Mike took bunny home and washed him 3 times to get him nice and clean. Bunny still a stench but we are so happy he is home. Maddie has not let him go and she says he doesn’t stink I plan on calling Publix corporate to tell them and posting to news sites and radio sites to make sure everyone knows how awesome these ppl are. This is above and beyond and a true example of the good people in the world!

Madison and her mom couldn’t be more grateful, saying, “These guys did not tell me they were going to the dump, I did not ask them to do that either.”

“Such kindness,” she said. “Awesome people deserve to be recognized.”

(Story from wkrg.com)