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Police launch hunt for visiting girl's stuffed animal

Rocco the BunnyBoston Police report they are doing everything they can to reunite a California girl with her stuffed dog, Rocco, which went missing in a cab on Sept. 10.

Addison Ocker, 13, was in Boston with her brother, Aiden, a brain-cancer patient flown here for a Red Sox/Yankees game by the Make a Wish Foundation because he really wanted to see a game at Fenway. Unfortunately, Aiden's condition worsened on his arrival in Boston and he spent the night in Children's Hospital instead of at the ballgame - and then he was airlifted back to California, where he died two days later.

Somewhere between the hours of 10:00pm and midnight, Aiden’s mom and 13 year-old sister Addison took a cab (possibly Metro Cab) from the Back Bay Hotel to Children’s Hospital. Upon exiting the cab, Aiden’s sister, Addison, inadvertently left behind her stuffed dog, Rocco. To say the least, Rocco has tremendous sentimental value to Addison and, as anyone who has ever loved a favorite toy or stuffed animal can imagine, Rocco means the world to Addison. In fact, according to family friends, Rocco and Addison have been all but inseparable for the past 10 years and we at the Boston Police Department are seeking your help in reuniting Addison with her stuffed friend – Rocco.

If you know where Rocco is, contact the BPD Hackney Unit at 617-343-4475 or the BPD Office of Public Information at 617-343-4520.

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Comments

It's good they have all this extra time on their hands, you know not dealing with all the shootings that have taken place.

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Maybe it's because I know what it's like to have a kid's most precious possession go missing, but it's nice to live in a place where police will do something like this.

But to answer your more direct point, if you look at the contact people, it's the hackney (i.e., taxi) division and public affairs - neither of which ever get involved in the hunt for murderers, shooters, drug dealers, etc., so don't worry, no crimes will go unsolved because a PR person wrote up a press release.

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...but then I read the entire article about the young boy having terminal cancer, getting worse and then dying before fulfilling his wish to see a baseball game.

Having my dad go through the same thing (he died about eight days after celebrating his 35th wedding anniversary) puts the "cops have more important things to do" sneer on ice pretty damn quick.

Hope they do find the doll for the girl.

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three times, once with his door, then with his cab, then in person - with two people in the cab as witnesses - is still out there.

Despite giving Boston Police a partial plate AND the medallion number.

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I'd be happy to facilitate a followup on this.

My email at BPD is [email protected]

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Anon - If you were riding a bicycle at the time of the incident, I wouldn't bother with the BPD.

If my experience is any guide , they would inform you that they are investigating the incident, and then conclude after a couple months, and without gathering any additional evidence, that no crime was committed. Which would make you wonder why they didn't just say that in the first place.

Seriously, it's just empty public relations: a waste of your time, the cops' time, and taxpayer dollars. In my experience, if you ride a bike, don't expect to be protected by the law (although you're still expected to obey it).

Of course, if you were a motorist or a pedestrian when the cabbie allegedly assaulted you, then disregard what I wrote. You just might find justice.

All that said, I wish the authorities success in finding Rocco. Don't let anyone convince you that locating this child's cherished stuffed animal isn't genuine police work.

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This girl just lost her brother. Losing her prized possession certainly doesn't make this situation any easier. The least we can do for her is to help hunt down her precious stuffed animal.

What a gut-wrenching and tragic story this is. It's got the substance for a Lifetime movie.

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I have to agree with the above poster. Its nice that BPD is doing something nice for a change.. but considering the multiple murders that have happened in the past few weeks, I think their energies would be better off focused elsewhere.

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...your reading comprehension is lacking. Adam mentioned above that the police staff that solve murders are not the ones listed as the contacts on this. The BPD's engagement in this is having no impact on solving murders, or any other crime, realistically speaking.

Certainly catching murderers is important. We don't seem to stop doing everything else until all murders are solved though. There are lots of important things we want done, but do not seem to put a priority on them over other things in our lives. We all seem to be quite capable of stressing out about fixie riding hipsters and the price of condos when soldiers are dying in our name on the other side of the planet for no decent reason and without any damned sacrifice on our part (unless you're in a military family). As a matter of fact as a society we ignore it entirely.

So all this righteous indignation over a small display of human kindness seems like the douchiest of attitudes to cop.

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Why is it so difficult for people to comprehend a division of labor? "WAIT?! Don't all police officers investigate murders or rapes or kidnappings?" yeah, sure and everyone at your office cleans the bathroom at night, right?

Also, how long do people actually think it took to post this to the internet from BPD's point of view? 3 or 4 minutes? Yep, that is the average time it takes to solve a murder, how dare they waste precious minutes for a young girl whose brother just died?!

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By those standards, the police have no business investigating a mere shooting until every murder case is cleared off their books because, you know, someone dying is clearly more important than someone who was merely maimed. Forget about home invasions, muggings, car jackings and all that other stuff; they won't be getting to those for a LOOOOOONG time.

Also, we'll need to stop flu vaccine production now because we still haven't cured AIDS. Or is AIDS after cancer? I'm not up on the hierarchy of fatal diseases.

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I was just about to post a snarky comment, then I read that the kid's brother died. Let's hope they find Rocco.

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Sadly out of line here. But hey, whatever makes BPD look good.

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asshole in this forum for my snarky comments and overall cynical nature. Glad to see some other posters have me beat in the asshole department.

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We may not always agree, but you're the asshole I want, dvdoff.

.. er perhaps I should restate.

Nah.

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I figured the thread would be at least 1/3 dickbag comments, but I wasn't really expecting one to be the very first.

My condolences to the girl on losing her brother, and I hope the effort to find her stuffed animal brings her some measure of comfort even if they don't find it.

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I'm as cynical and jaded a person as you'll ever meet, but the BPD are doing a gracious and thoughtful thing for a little girl from thousands of miles away who just lost her little brother to cancer. They are not wasting resources.

Hopefully the poor kid will get her stuffed dog back. I know when I was little me and my stuffed bunny rabbit were inseparable, and I would have been mortified if something happened to him, even though he was dirty, scruffy and missing an eye.

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Oh my god this is one of the saddest things I've read here. I've walked in this poor girl's shoes (not the stuffed toy part, the loss of a loved one, similar situation). God bless the BPD for being human beings.

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but nary a word (that I've seen at least) from the cab folks on this.

On a related note, however, it's been good to see Mr. Daley from the Hackney Division posting on UHub about cab-related issues. Business/institutional reputations are changed by one good employee at a time.

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Is the photo with the story of a stuffed Boston Terrier? Methinks it would be nice to sponsor a wee effort to purchase a RedSox adorned stuffed Boston Terrier teammate and ship it Westward to possibly serve as a new comforting friend. Could the powers that be at BPD serve as a donation receipt point and shipper since they have the particulars of names and addresses? Or alternatively, could U Hub do something along that line?

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if u hub could set up something like that, i'd be happy to chip in!

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To see if somebody's already organized something like this; will obviously report back.

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that people are working to reunite this girl with her toy. I'd be devastated if I lost something that important, especially at such a trying time.

However, I see so many of these I-lost-my-stuffy! on the internet and have a flashback to my mom saying, "Leave (favorite toy) at home because you'll lose it and I'm not spending the whole day driving around looking for it."

Do moms not say that any more?

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I say that almost every day to one or the other of my kids, but I am so happy to see this post and hope that they find that girl's lovey.

If I had to rush with my daughter to the hospital in the middle of the night in a strange city, because I just got the call that my child was dying, and my daughter wanted to bring the one thing in the world that comforted and calmed her most to get through that night, I would not say no. I also would not give her a hard time for leaving it in the cab. I say we should move heaven and earth to find that dog and return it to her.

My daughter lost her security blanket on a trip last summer, and she still sometimes cries about it, but beyond making a sincere effort to find it by calling all the places we stopped, we didn't expect it to be declared an emergency. This situation is quite different.

If you want to start a separate thread about how annoying it is that everybody seems to be looking for Knuffle Bunny I would suggest a different context.

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Moms say that all the time, but when you're accompanying your terminally ill brother all the way across the country, it's okay to bring a lovey.

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"Lovey"? Did this forum turn into 50 Shades of Hub all of a sudden?

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a big city all the way across the country to see her brother's dying wish fulfilled. Of course she's going to bring her favorite stuffed animal with her. It's comforting and familiar.

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We know how important stuffed animals are to kids. BPD or Addison's mom...please reach out to DreamMeUp.com and we'll give Addison a free book starring Rocco. All we need are some photos of Rocco. Wish we could do more.

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