Bracelet lost at Eagles parade reunited owner thanks to kindness of stranger

NEW JERSEY (WTXF) - Who says Eagles fans don't have hearts? Thanks to the kindness of a stranger and the power of social media a bracelet lost at the Philadelphia Eagles parade has been reunited with its owner.

Jody Rivera sat in the living room of her Sewell, New Jersey home, holding the sporty, rubber and metal bracelet she bought for her son for Christmas.

16-year-old Mike wants to be a Major League baseball player and Jody chose a message of encouragement to be inscribed:

"To my son, always remember, you are braver than you believe, stronger than you see, smarter than you think and loved more than you know. Love, Mom."

"I think the message is just kind of everything that we've told him over the years," Rivera explained to FOX 29's Bruce Gordon. "To believe in yourself and work hard and you can achieve whatever you want to achieve."

Mike was wearing his bracelet when he and some friends went to the Eagles Super Bowl parade and ceremony on the Ben Franklin Parkway last week, along with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of fellow Birds fans.

"He was having a ball," Rivera recalls. "And he mentioned he had a girl on his shoulders for a little while..."

Mike lost his bracelet in all the hoopla.

The next day, Jody noticed a message shared on her Facebook wall by an old high school friend she hasn't talked to in years.

There it was--a lost bracelet just like Mike's.

"I saw the inscription and obviously recognized it and said, 'Wow, I bought that for my son!'

The question flashed through her mind, "I wonder if it could be his?

Jody reached out to "Joe" the man who found the bracelet and made the original post. It had been shared more than 6,700 times.

He quickly agreed to return in. In fact, he mailed it out Monday and it arrived Tuesday--free of charge.

"Pretty special thing," said Rivera of this stranger's gesture. "I'm glad that I got it back, and I'm glad that he went through the effort."

Having grown up in Philadelphia- and being a big Eagles fan herself-- Jody knows the city's sports fans have a bad rep. She thinks it's a bad rap.

"I know my Philly people," she says/ "We're all good people, and a very small percentage get a lot of the negativity."

Now, Mike's bracelet is back home, and Jody's faith in humanity has been confirmed.

"Thank you to Joe," she said. "Wherever you are!"