When you toss items into the ocean, you don’t usually expect to get them back. But for one young boy, his hope for a response helped him send a bottle soaring into the ocean, all for the chance someone might find it.
So when two teachers took a walk on a beach one day, cleaning debris from the sand as they went along, they had no idea they would soon help that young boy get an answer he’d been waiting decades for. Then they saw a bottle, and when they realized what it was, handed it to two little girls nearby.
Thirty-seven years ago, 10-year-old Troy Heller took a chance and sent a message in a bottle flying into the ocean. He grew up, and never thought about it again. At least, not until his phone rang.
The story of a message in a bottle, 37 years in the making. Photo from TikTok
After a recent hurricane had left debris on a beach in Sebastian, Fla., no one thought much of the random pieces of trash that had accumulated on the beach. But once the bottle was found during cleanup, its origin story went viral.
The Carrmax family, Katie, her wife, Anna, and their daughters Kylie and Emmy, were determined to find the owner of the bottle.
“We just feel really special that we ran into two wonderful teachers picking trash up after the hurricane,” Katie Carrmax said.
When the family got home, they opened the bottle, and found the note left by Heller. It had his name, age, address and a phone number. Heller said he wrote the note on a whim while he was on vacation with his family.
At the bottom of the note, Heller had written, “P.S. whoever finds this call me, or write to me.”
The family told news outlet WLKY that it took them a bit of sleuthing to find out where Heller was currently living. The info he had left on his message in the bottle, was after all, a bit outdated. Finally, the family located Heller, who was living in Florida.
Heller told WLKY that he didn’t answer when he got the first phone call, but when he got a text from the same number, he decided he needed to take a look. Attached was a photo of his letter.
“As soon as I saw it, I remembered writing it,” he told the news outlet. “I’m just surprised it didn’t break.”
Kylie Carrmax told WLKY that she was “really happy” to find the message writer. “I was really looking forward to seeing who he was,” she said.
The Carrmax family mailed the letter back to Heller, and sent him a message of their own. “What an amazing journey!”, the family wrote.
Heller said he has taken both the old and new letters and hung them on his wall at home. “It’s something you never thought would happen,” he told WLKY.
“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.”
@carmaxfam11 Whoever finds this write me back #38yearsago #messageinabotte #hurricane #verobeach #treasure #pepsibottle ##hurricanenicole #hurricanenicoletreasure #specialmemories #howcool #morningwalks #teachersarespecial ♬ Message In A Bottle – The Police
