The employees of a small community gas station in Manitoba are trying desperately to get a little white teddy bear with a small container of ashes back to its home for Christmas.

"If these people are in distress about this situation, which I'm sure they are, then it would be a great miracle," said Hubert Perrin, the owner of the Husky gas station in Richer, Man.

On Dec. 9, a couple in a pickup truck with a U-Haul trailer attached was filling their tank in the community located about 60 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg. When the woman passenger got out of the truck, a little white bear fell out.

"One of my staff found it on the ground by our pumps and didn`t think anything of it other than to not to throw it away," Perrin said.

"The next day when he was working again he started playing with it and noticed there was something inside."

It was a small package filled with what appeared to be ashes. Perrin said they didn't know for sure, but a former employee, who is training to be a funeral director, came in and identified it as an urn, possibly for a small child.

Seeking the owner

As soon as the significance of the bear became clear, the small staff of the gas station, in a community of about 500, banded together to find a lead about the people who dropped the bear.

The bear had a small container inside with what appeared to be ashes. (Submitted by Kieran Saindon) A former employee sent out a province-wide email to her contacts with funeral companies. Staff also called U-Haul to see what information, if any, it could provide.

Perrin went back through of his video footage of the day and spotted the moment the bear made its escape.

"They had to move the truck, it was a Friday and it was busy and there was a customer after them. They wouldn't have noticed it because they moved the vehicle," he said.

"We are really stuck with trying to figure out how to connect this bear to these people."

The tale of the teddy and how it travelled to Richer has become the Christmas crusade for the gas station staff. Perrin said the best gift would be getting it home.

"To possibly imagine the loss of a small child or a baby, it just makes sense. We have to put the effort to try and do what we can," he said.

If you know the owner of the teddy bear, call the Husky at 204-422-6380.