Commuting - what would mary poppins do?

for the past three days coming home, i've passed a loved-looking teddy-bear at the very side of the road, at the point where the major road emerges from its own underpass. tonight i couldn't stand it anymore, so i stopped and brought it home.

now i don't know how to go about even trying to get it back to whoever owns it. it seems pretty clear to me that it was tossed out of a car - nobody walks anywhere in that area, particularly with little kids. there isn't really anywhere you could prop it up somewhere nice and visible so the owners might see it as they drive by. and i don't know which road it might have come from: the overpass (going east-west) or the road itself (going north-south). it's not like i'm going to lie awake for the next 20 years about it, but i if there is a way of at least trying to get it back to its owner, i'd rather do that. any ideas?

If it was/ is a Build-A-Bear Workshop bear there should be a piece of paper inside that is linked with a national database that lists the owner and their address. If it is a Build-A-Bear bear, find a store and they can do the rest.

it's a care bear. ugly cutesy little thing, but it sure looks like some very small kid loves it a lot.

i've got two options in mind:

- duct-tape it high up on the back of a giant roadworks sign within a few metres of where i found it, and hope that a) the owners were driving over the bridge, b) the owners do it regularly and c) the city doesn't take it down because it's on their sign.

- ad in the local papers, and hope the owners read it.

- i can't believe i'd go this far, but i guess i could contact some of the mainstream radio stations. human-interest and all that. then i could be all smarmy and self-righteous and meaningful about how if it weren't for bike commuters . . . i think i'm gonna go throw up, and then stab myself.

[edit. and d'oh. that's three options]

What about cleaning it up and giving it to a homeless kid?

I would personally give 3 or 4 phone calls to local radio stations and WITHOUT giving the perfect location (otherwise you will have 300 owners) see if someone shows up.

How big is it? Maybe you can make it the commuter's maskot.

It's probably Bobo, Mr. Burns's bear.

A vote for solution #1

Well, if you want Mary Poppins to help, you could always tear it up and throw it in the fireplace or perhaps you could get it to laugh and it could float up there to good old Mary. What you really need is Lassie in this case though as Mary was not very good at finding things or people. :)
Good luck with relocating the bear. If you can't find the owner, I'd call it Rosebud or Bobo.

Keep the dang thing. Put it on your bed and snuggle up with it at night. I bet it would appreciate it :p

Mail it and a threatening note to Stephen Colbert.

Put up a found poster like when people lose their pets. Or maybe make ransom notes and scatter them through out the city. That'd be kinda funny. "Leave a new bike under the bridge or teddy gets it!"

It's most likely diseased. You have not long to live..

I figured this was about riding a bike in the rain. What does Mary Poppins have to do with teddy bears?