Losing a parent is devastating at any age, but when you’re a kid, it hits different.
A mom in Arizona wanted to give her 9-year-old son something special to hold onto after his father died—a Build-A-Bear with his dad’s voice saying goodnight.
But when the package arrived, she opened it to find someone else’s order inside. What happened next is proof that TikTok can do more than just serve up viral dances and drama.
Woman Gets Wrong Build-A-Bear
In a viral video with more than 3.8 million views, content creator Aria Shantal (@aria_shantal) shared a desperate plea to find whoever received her son’s Build-A-Bear by mistake.
“Hi, if you ordered a pink Wicked Build-A-Bear, and received a brown bear with Eagles gear, please contact me? That bear was for my little boy. His dad died and it has his dad’s voice saying, ‘goodnight Buddy, I love you,'” the text overlay on her video read.
Shantal posted a slideshow with the bear mix-up. One photo showed what she received: a box containing a pink bear, a blue sparkly dress, and tiara. The second showed her actual order: a brown bear, and add on Philadelphia Eagles jersey and hat, plus a voice recording and carrying case. The total order came to $64.95.
“This was HIS bear. I’ve already contacted customer service but they just want to refund us,” Shantal explained. “We don’t have a BAB where we live, so we’d have to completely reorder this.”
“I’ve already contacted customer service maybe I can ship you your bear and you can ship ours back?” she wrote in the caption.
TikTok Comes Through
In a follow-up video, Shantal shared screenshots of a TikTok direct message conversation with the woman who received her bear. The other woman, @bamaloungeflygirl, sent a picture and video of the Eagles bear she’d gotten by mistake, clicking the paw so Shantal could hear the audio.
“YESSSS THATS IT!!! Oh my gosh!!” Shantal wrote back.
“I’m thinking they mislabeled the boxes at the warehouse. Because you did get what I ordered,” the woman replied.
The speed at which TikTok solved this problem left everyone stunned. Shantal responded to commenters who couldn’t believe how fast the bear was located.
“That’s what I SAID! I was like, it was VERY fast! I wanted to wait a day before doing anything else, just in case! We were about to broadcast it to the news and we had so many kind, wonderful people offering to purchase a bear!” she explained. “But I wanted to hold on just a tiny bit longer to see!”
When she finally heard her late partner’s voice coming from the bear, Shantal broke down.
“I was CRYING when I heard his voice, I knew it was ours!” she shared.
The woman who had Shantal’s bear offered to ship it back immediately. Shantal insisted on paying for shipping and returning the pink Wicked bear, but the other woman wouldn’t accept it.
“She is so kind, she said she is paying for shipping and since BAB replaced hers, she said she doesn’t want me to ship hers. To find someone else who may need it,” Shantal wrote. “I offered again and again. But she’s so sweet, she politely declined.”
Not Her First TikTok Miracle
This wasn’t even the first time TikTok helped Shantal track down something important.
“This is the SECOND time tiktok has helped me! The first time was when I was looking for my L&D nurse who saved my life and took such good care of us!” she shared. “It worked on a much smaller scale, we only had to search AZ, and I had a first name and hospital. But this time I had to just trust the algorithm to find the bear!”
Shipping Mix-Ups Are More Common Than You’d Think
Shantal’s experience with Build-A-Bear isn’t unusual.
Shipping errors happen more often than most people realize. According to Marketing Scoop, up to 10% of e-commerce orders have errors, with incorrect items being a leading cause of customer dissatisfaction. Amazon shipped over 5 billion items worldwide in 2020, so even a small percentage of mistakes has a big impact
Research from RF-SMART shows that the average misshipment rate across all warehousing operations is about 2-3% of all orders. Each error costs companies between $50-$100 in additional expenses, including return shipping, restocking fees, repackaging, and extra labor.
For companies processing high volumes, these costs can quickly add up to thousands or even millions of dollars annually.
The causes behind these mix-ups are varied: items can be mislabeled on warehouse shelves, workers may grab the wrong product when fulfilling orders, labels can be misread during sorting, or boxes can get swapped during the packing process.
Commenters React
“This is the kind of stuff the internet was made for,” a top comment read.
“Nevermind the fact that they found the bear, but so many strangers willing to go build a new one,” a person shared.
“The number of people asking for details so they can personally get you a bear made is truly moving. Some really wonderful humans out there,” another wrote.
“You never know! This may have happened to bring you both into each others lives. I’m so glad you found it!” a commenter added.
BroBible reached out to Aria Shantal via TikTok direct message and comment and to @bamaloungeflygirl via TikTok direct message and to Build-A-Bear via email.