TK Maxx puts on sale toddler's beloved home-made toy that she dropped in the store



It was only a stuffed sock with two button eyes and a wonky, hand-stitched mouth, but to Poppy Beazley it was a friendly dinosaur and her favourite toy.

So when her pink-and-black plaything Runny went missing on a shopping trip with her mother, the three-year-old was distraught.

Stephanie Beazley, 27, contacted every shop they had visited and asked them to call her if the cuddly toy, which she had made for her daughter, turned up.



Reunited: Poppy Beazley with her toy dinosaur Runny, which is made from a stripey sock and has a wonky hand-stitched mouth



'When she lost it Poppy was really upset. She loves it and takes it to bed with her every night,' said Mrs Beazley, a shop worker from Collier Row, near Romford, Essex.

'It was late but we ran back through the shops we had been in, looking for him, but couldn't see him.'

Mrs Beazley had given up hope when none of the stores returned her calls. But on Monday, six weeks after the trip, her own mother rang to say she had seen Runny on a shelf at a TK Maxx in Romford - with a £3.99 price tag on it.



Relieved: Poppy Beazley, with mother Stephanie, whose mother spotted the toy for sale on her return to the TK Maxx store a month later

'My mother was so surprised. She was sure it was Poppy's toy so she took a photo of it with her phone and described it to me later on,' she said.



'By that time it was 6pm and the store closes at 7pm. I don't drive so I called my husband and got him to leave work to pick it up straight away. I said "You've got to get it before someone buys it".



'He spoke to the manager who thought it was quite funny and let him get it.'



She added: 'We all had a good laugh. It was pretty obvious it was home made and not machine-made.

But he's priceless! Poppy's grandmother spotted the well-loved Runny on sale in the cut-price designer store TK Maxx for just £3.99

'It was the first time I've made anything like it so the stitching was wonky and the eyes were made of buttons. I'm quite flatterered they tried to sell it.'



The family believe staff must have discovered the toy and, when they failed to find it on the stock list, attached a price tag they thought was suitable.



TK Maxx yesterday apologised for the mix-up and said an investigation would be launched.



A spokesman added: 'We are taking this very seriously. We can only apologise to Mrs Beazley and assure her a full investigation is underway.'



Poppy lost her favourite toy at this branch of TK Maxx



