'Christmas miracle': Special baby blanket returned to Saskatoon family

Carmen Bochek says she's never letting her family's special baby blanket out of the house again.

Last week, Bochek was with her baby son Christmas shopping when a blanket made by her husband's grandmother was lost.

The blanket was special for a few reasons. One, the grandmother died shortly after giving it to the young couple. Two, the grandmother promised she would send them a baby with the blanket after she died. The couple had previously been unable to conceive.

Bochek searched frantically for the missing blanket. She called customer service and flooded social media buy and sell pages but didn't hear anything.

Then on Sunday afternoon she got a call from Saskatoon Crime Stoppers. The blanket had been stuffed on a shelf at Toys R Us.

"We thought it was lost forever," she said. "I guess our Christmas miracle came true."

Bochek said it was an enormous relief to get the blanket back.

"I was in tears," she said. "I was shocked and so happy that whoever had it, returned it."

Bochek is convinced the blanket was taken home by a shopper who returned it to the store after seeing the media uproar.

"However it was taken or however it was lost, it was found," she said.

She had posted a $100 reward for the blanket's return, but the store clerk that found the item refused to take the money. The family has decided to donate the reward to the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital Foundation.