Lost toy attached to balloons floats around neighbourhood for days, inspiring kindness
Before Dorian Weaver discovered how magical his community could be, the nine-year-old was simply playing with his Harry Potter Lego.
“I was doing like a wizard spell,” Dorian smiles, before showing how he’d tied two of the mini-figurines to the end of a couple of half-inflated balloons, hoping they would fly around the living room.
“Balloonus!”
Alas, the lofty spell failed. The Harry Potter characters fell to the floor.
“They were like bobbing,” Dorian said, before revealing that when his back was turned, his spell sent Potter and his pal skyward.
“They must have bobbed out the window.”
Although Dorian didn’t realize that until hours later, when his mom Cristina Weaver noticed something unusual beyond their backyard.
“I guess the wind picked them up and blew them into the tree behind our house,” Cristina says, pointing out their deck door towards their backyard.
“Oh no!” Dorian recalls exclaiming after seeing them stuck so high up, before saying, “Oh yes,” and scrambling up the tree to try to liberate his Lego.
“I was like, ‘No you’re not,’” Cristina recalls saying as Dorian climbed within a few feet of the top of the tree. “Come down!”
While Dorian did what he was told and came down — by the next morning — so had the toys.
“I was like, ‘Oh no!’” Cristina remembers noticing the balloons had disappeared from the treetop. “They’re gone.”
Her boy’s beloved toys were no where to be seen. So Cristina posted a plea on social media for help.
“The amount of people that responded was really quite heart-warming,” Cristina smiles.
The comments ranged from a bucket truck operator offering to look for the lofty Lego in the nearby trees, to a woman gifting Dorian a complete set of Harry Potter Lego characters that her son had outgrown.
“It was awesome,” Dorian smiles.
While Dorian and Cristina couldn’t have been more grateful — three days later — they couldn’t have been more surprised to hear how far the balloons had traveled. Somebody who lived blocks away – across a park, elementary school, municipal hall, and busy streets – from where the balloons were last seen had found them in their yard, and the figurines were still attached.
“Yeah!” Dorian remembers saying when he was reunited with his toys.
“It was so nice,” Cristina smiles. “It’s that old adage of it takes a village.”
While Dorian’s wizarding spell may have made his toys disappear, there’s no doubt that it was simple acts of kindness from countless strangers that made their reappearance feel so magical.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
'What have we done?' Lawyer describes shock at possible role in Trump's 2016 victory
A lawyer who negotiated a pair of hush money deals at the centre of Donald Trump's criminal trial recalled Thursday his "gallows humor" reaction to Trump's 2016 election victory and the realization that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to the win.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Loblaw leaders call criticism 'misguided,' say they aren't to blame for high food prices
Loblaw chairman Galen Weston and the company's new CEO are pushing back against critics who blame the grocery giant for soaring food prices, as a month-long boycott of the retailer gets underway.
'Giant-killer' Kazushi Kimura to race in Kentucky Derby this weekend: 'I'm representing Canada and Japan'
Six years ago, at age 18, Kazushi Kimura left his home and family behind in Hokkaido, Japan to chase a dream. This weekend, he'll ride in the Kentucky Derby.
Orangutan observed treating wound using medicinal plant in world first
Scientists working in Indonesia have observed an orangutan intentionally treating a wound on their face with a medicinal plant, the first time this behavior has been documented.
Quebec premier asks police to dismantle camp at McGill University
Quebec Premier Francois Legault has called on the police to dismantle the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the lower field of McGill University's downtown campus in Montreal.
TD Bank hit with $9.2M penalty after failing to report suspicious transactions
Canada’s financial-crime watchdog has levied a $9.2-million penalty against The Toronto-Dominion Bank for non-compliance with money laundering and terrorist financing measures as the bank also faces compliance investigations in the U.S.