After 37 years at sea, a message in a bottle has been returned to the Kentucky man who once threw it into the ocean as a young boy.
It was 1985 when a 10-year-old Troy Heller squeezed a note into a Pepsi bottle andtossed itinto the Atlantic Ocean during a trip to Vero Beach, Fla., according to CBS affiliate WLKY.
The bottlewashed ashorein Sebastian — approximately 13 miles north of the spot where Heller threw it into the ocean — on Nov. 13, per the report.
“I just thought I’d throw it in the ocean and see where it went,” Heller told the outlet, “so it’s just amazing that it finally found its way back.”
“We just feel really special that we ran into two wonderful teachers picking trash up after the hurricane,” said Katie Carmaxx, who was walking with her wife Anna and daughters Kylie and Emmy at the time, per the report.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The Carrmax then went on a mission to find the man behind the message. They brought the bottle home, smashed the glass andpulled out the note, which featured Heller’s name, age, address and phone number, according to a video the family shared on TikTok.
At the bottom of the page, Heller wrote, “P.S. whoever finds this call me, or write to me.”
After a little detective work online, the Carrmax family eventually located Heller’s current contact information, according to WLKY.
“As soon as I saw it, I remembered writing it,” he explained. “I’m just surprised it didn’t break,” he later added of the bottle.
Kylie Carmaxx told WLKY that she was “really happy” to learn that they had found the mystery man. “I was really looking forward to seeing who he was,” she said.
The Carrmax family eventually sent the letter back to Heller, along with their own note and photos of the message he wrote inside the bottle, according to their TikTok video, which has been liked more than 58,000 times since November.
“What an amazing journey!” the Carmaxx family said their note, according to the clip.
Since then, Heller has had the letters and photos framed for his Mount Washington home, according to WLKY. “It’s something you never thought would happen,” he told the outlet.
“I thought I’d just throw it out in the ocean and just see where it went, you know?” Heller explained. “It’s just amazing that it finally found its way back.”
source: people.com
