Warning, if you have a heart, you might need to grab a couple of tissues before reading this story, which serves as proof that there are customer service reps out there who actually care about customers. A little boy who lost a shirt worn by his late father was reunited with the treasured possession after Delta Airlines employees searched through the trash to find it.

His father passed away two years ago while stringing Christmas lights and was wearing the shirt at the time. Ever since then the boy and the shirt have been inseparable.

The boy and his family were flying from Fargo to San Diego recently reports WDAY-TV (via Good Morning America) and the 7-year-old had the shirt with him.

His mother says he’ll lay the shirt out and spray the cologne his father used to wear on it and “sing the Daddy song to go to bed.”

Somehow as the boy and his family were rushing to deboard the plane, the shirt was left behind. Once the boy realized it was gone, the hunt began, spearheaded by a family friend. She took to the phone and social media, trying to get Delta to help locate the shirt.

“I started by calling the Delta 800 number and I tried to keep my composure, I am pretty emotional,” the friend remembers. “I cried, the lady on the other end cried.”

From there, Delta spread the word about the shirt after it didn’t show up in the Lost & Found. Delta called the family friend to give her the good news after pulling out all the stops to find the shirt, including doing something akin to a Dumpster dive.

“She said, Kelly, we found out. They found it, they looked through the garbage and found it. I cried some more. I started crying, [the boy] started crying.”

As for the young man, he’s relieved to be reunited with the beloved shirt.

“I was really happy because I liked it so much,” he says.

Casselton boy is reunited with a special shirt [WDAY-TV]

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