CAPE CORAL, Fla. — It took a hurricane to go missing and another to bring it home. A wooden owl statue that got swept away by Hurricane Ian mysteriously reappeared in Hurricane Idalia’s storm surge. And thanks to an ABC7 story, the lost treasure is back where it belongs.

When Idalia flooded canals in Cape Coral last week, Warren Bullock told ABC7 he had a wooden sculpture float into his yard on Bayshore Avenue. 

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The owner of the statue, John Boncich, saw the ABC7 story and knocked on Bullock’s door.  

“They said, ‘We lost it during Ian,’” said Bullock. “I said, ‘Ian or Idalia?’ I couldn’t believe it! What’s the odds of something washing up in the canal and still being here 11 months later?”

Boncich said he’s had the wooden owl for 7-8 years. The handcrafted statue is from Minnesota, where Boncich moved to the Cape from. The owl had welcomed guests, sitting in front of Boncich’s home on Bayshore Drive. But when his street went underwater in Ian, the statue disappeared. 

“I saw the story and then I saw my wooden owl and I said, ‘Oh, God, there it is!’” said Boncich. “I always thought that it floated back into the bay or the Gulf.”

Bullock lives about 20 houses down on a different waterway that stems off of Boncich’s canal.

“I don’t see how it could’ve got caught under a dock because of low tides and stuff,” said Bullock. “Somehow it was still in this canal… it’s like a higher power or something. Meant for them to be reunited, I guess.”

The statue has lost an eye in its venture, but the owl is back home and watching their neighborhood from Boncich’s yard. 

“It stayed here all the time, waiting to be found!” said Boncich.