‘Where’s Buzz?’
Boy left Buzz Lightyear inside a plane, ramp agent made it his mission to reunite them
From the back seat of a rental car, a concerned 2-year-old boy repeatedly asked his parents the same question: “Where’s Buzz?”
Ashley Davis frantically sifted through the family’s luggage in search of her son Hagen’s beloved Buzz Lightyear action figure. It was nowhere to be found. Hagen was distraught.
“To Hagen, it was the end of the world,” Davis, 31, said. “He wanted his Buzz. He is super-attached.”
It was Jan. 30, and the family of three had just traveled from Sacramento to Dallas, after booking a last-minute flight to attend a funeral.
Jason William Hamm, a Southwest Airlines ramp agent at the Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Ark., spearheaded an elaborate effort to return Buzz to his rightful owner.
He commenced the reunion mission after Beth Buchanan, an operations agent at Southwest Airlines, discovered the toy in the aircraft, which had landed in Little Rock after departing from Dallas.
While sweeping through the cabin, she spotted the action figure and noticed the name “Hagen” inscribed on the bottom of Buzz’s boot in permanent marker - a nod to “Toy Story,” since Andy writes his own name on the sole of his toys’ shoes. Rather than tossing the stranded doll in the airline’s lost-and-found bin, she decided to look through the passenger list.
Hamm, 47, got involved in the search when he saw the toy sitting on his colleague’s desk. After cross-referencing the passenger list with the name on the boot, they confirmed Buzz belonged to a 2-year-old boy from Elk Grove, Calif.
Once they tracked down Hagen’s information, Hamm sent an email to the family to let them know he located Buzz and wanted to return him, asking for the best address to ship the toy to.
While waiting for a response, Hamm, who has worked at Southwest Airlines for 10 years, got creative. He enjoys aviation photography and decided if he was going to convince this little boy that Buzz was truly on a mission, he would need photo evidence.
He took the action figure to the tarmac to snap some pictures in various locations. He positioned Buzz in front of an airplane, an engine and, obviously, a cockpit.
And he didn’t stop there. “I thought it would be kind of cool to add a little letter to make it look like Buzz was on a mission,” Hamm said. “I thought it would be a cute keepsake.”
In a space ranger-esque font, Hamm hand-wrote a letter to Hagen, complete with a Buzz Lightyear logo.
“To Commander Hagen,” the letter reads. “I am very excited to return to you upon completing my mission. I was able to explore the airport and spaceport in Little Rock, Arkansas while I was away, and I have included photos of my adventure. My journey has taught me a lot but I am so thankful to return to my buddy.”
He signed the note: “To infinity and beyond! Your buddy, Buzz Lightyear.”
Once Hamm heard back from the Davis family - who said they were stunned to receive the initial email that Buzz had been located - he put together a special package for Hagen.
Hamm printed out the photos he took, bubble-wrapped Buzz, and tucked in the handwritten letter. Then he decorated the exterior of the cardboard box with a drawing of Buzz Lightyear, stars and planets, as well as classic “Toy Story” sayings, like “Not today, Zurg!” and, of course, “To infinity and beyond!”