A message in a bottle returns to Ky. man 37 years after tossing it into ocean

(CNN NEWSOURCE) — A Kentucky man put a message in a bottle when he was a child and threw it into the ocean off the Florida coast while on a trip. It somehow found its way back to him 37 years later.

“It’s something you never thought would happen,” said Troy Heller.

Heller was just 10 years old when he took a trip to Vero Beach, Florida.

“That’s me fishing on the dock of the houseboat we were staying on,” Heller said while showing a photo.

It was on pier where he did something he’d never done before.

“Name’s Troy Heller, from Louisville, Kentucky.”

He wrote a message in a bottle and threw it in the Atlantic Ocean.

“P.S. whoever finds this, call me or write to me.”

But he never imagined his message from 1985 would make its way back to him nearly 38 years later.

“For it to be found is pretty wild,” said Anna Carrmax.

On Nov. 13, in the aftermath of Hurricane Nicole, the bottle washed up on shore in Sebastian, Florida, about 13 miles north of Vero Veach where Heller threw it in the water. It ended up in the hands of the Carrmax family.

They opened it up and knew they just had to track down heller.

“Did you think that you would really find him?”

“Yes, I knew I actually would. We know how to find people,” said Katie Carrmax.

The internet, plus Heller’s old phone number and address led them to Mount Washington.

“I get a phone call from a Florida number. And I didn’t recognize the number, a lot of spam calls, so I just kind of let it go. And then a few minutes after that I get a text message asking if this is Troy Heller, and then I get a picture. And the picture is of the letter. As soon as I saw it, I remembered writing it,” he said.

“I was really happy because I was really looking forward to seeing who he was,” Kylie Carrmax said.

They were all blown away that the bottle stayed intact for decades.

“I’m just surprised it didn’t break. I really am,” Heller said.

The Carrmax family posted about it on TikTok before mailing the original message back to Heller.

“I thought I’d just throw it out in the ocean and just see where it went, you know? And it’s just amazing that it finally found its way back,” he said.