Publix employees dig through landfill to find lost bunny

DAPHNE, Ala. (FOX 13) - A little girl has been reunited with her stuffed bunny thanks to some incredible Publix employees who went the extra mile to find it in a local landfill. 

Jenna Rachal turned to Facebook when her daughter left "Bunny" in a children's shopping cart at a Publix in Daphne, Alabama hoping to find the stuffed animal her daughter had since she was a baby.

Rachal said she and her daughter were trying to beat the storm after grocery shopping and Bunny got left behind. 

Rachal said she posted the photo of her daughter, Maddie," with Bunny in a group on Facebook and the manager of the Publix saw the post. Rachal said the employees searched through the video cameras which showed her and her daughter in the parking lot, then followed bunny on camera from the cart to being tossed in the trash.

"Bunny then went from trash can to dumpster to the compactor to the garbage truck and then to the landfill!" Rachal said. "So Mike, the amazing manager at Publix in Daphne + 3 additional employees went to the landfill to dig for bunny and FOUND HIM!" Rachal wrote.

The manager, Mike Gayheart, washed the bunny a few times, according to Rachal, and though Bunny still has a scent, Rachal says they are so happy Bunny is home. "Maddie has not let him go and she says he doesn't stink," she wrote.

Rachal said this act of kindness was above and beyond and a true example of the good people in the world. 

When asked what made him go the extra mile, Gayheart told FOX 13, "The Publix culture." 

Gayheart said the founder of Publix believed in treating customers like royalty and fostering a family-like atmosphere. "This culture was passed onto me since I started working for Publix when I was 14," Gayheart said. "I was just doing my part to teach the next wave of Publix associates the value of that culture."