Message in a bottle located in Houston-area after 27 years
LA MARQUE, Texas - A 27-year-old message in a bottle was unearthed Saturday by a group of people picking up trash at Highland Bayou Park.
The Keep La Marque Beautiful Commission found the bottle while picking up more than 400 pounds of garbage.
"I’m walking along the shore there, and I saw the bottle," said Terry Pettijohn. "It was buried about halfway. I said, you know, I think we’ve got a note in the bottle."
The note written on cardboard says, "If you find this please call." It then gives two phone numbers and reads, "if not home, leave it on answer machine. Please leave #." Four signatures are also written along the bottom of the note.
"As soon as we got [the message] out of there, and we saw the phone number, within two minutes, we were calling the number," said Pettijohn.
The phone numbers are no longer in service, but the Keep La Marque Beautiful Commission was able to track one of the signatures down on Facebook.
"I had to do a double take on the piece of cardboard," said Brian Standefer. "[I thought] that’s my phone number. That’s my handwriting. That’s my signature."
According to Standefer, he remembers some details about when he and his three friends put the message in the bottle 27-years-ago. Standefer believes they wrote the note in 1995 when he was a 10-year-old. Standefer recalls dropping the bottle about two miles from where it was located at Highland Bayou Park.
"I [remember] the people we were with," said Standefer. "Drew, Travis, and Lance. We said, maybe one day we’ll be able to find this treasure. Honestly, I forgot about it."
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Standefer says he’s still very close friends with all of the people who he wrote the note with 27-years-ago. According to Standefer, finding this message has extra significance because one of their friends recently died.
"My best friend [Travis], he actually passed away a year-and-a-half ago," said Standefer. "This gives me goosebumps. He had something to do with it, shining down, saying everything is going to be okay."