By FireRescue1 Staff
SEMINOLE, Fla. — A woman returned an 18-year-old good luck charm to a firefighter who had lost it during Hurricane Irma.
Tampa Bay Times reported that Jim Lundh was given a stuffed Dalmatian by his 2-year-old daughter Kayla, who won it with his help in a claw machine. Eighteen years later, he still carries the “rescue dog” in his helmet to every call.
“A grown man carrying around a stuffed animal, I know that’s kind of funny,” Lundh said. “But it was like a good luck charm. Just a little bigger than a normal good luck charm.”
Lundh took the dog with him the night Hurricane Irma hit as he responded to a house fire.
“A lot of us were at the point of exhaustion,” Lundh said.
After containing the fire, Lundh realized the dog had been lost. He went back to the scene the next morning to search for it, but couldn’t find it.
“It’s like a piece of you missing,” he said.
Bev Anderson, 70, was staying with a friend near the house fire. The next day, she and her friend went to see the aftermath of the fire and found the stuffed animal in a gutter.
Anderson took the dog back with them, cleaned it up and took pictures of their evening with it, including putting it next to a bottle of wine. She visited the fire station with the toy the next day, and it was immediately recognized.
“He said, ‘Oh my God, that dog belongs to Jim ... He’s been distraught he lost this thing,’” Anderson said.
The firefighters left the dog with Lundh’s gear for him to find later. After finding it, Lundh called Anderson to thank her.
“I have no clue how it came back to me,” Lundh said. “There was no identification on it. She was a couple of blocks away. For her to come to the exact fire station with the exact crew on the exact day that I work, but I was off. For her to know to do that. It was pretty neat.”