Large missing rubber duck somewhere along Highway 401

Windsor, Ont. -

The mystery of a missing large rubber duck has consumed Toronto’s Simon Shaw.

Shaw says it was last seen eastbound on Highway 401 in Chatham-Kent between Tilbury and Kent Bridge Road.

“It’s just a mystery!” Shaw says. “He’s just vanished on this stretch of the 401.”

The four-foot-long duck is part of a custom made utility trailer Shaw built and uses for his job as a violin bow maker. The archetier says the top half vanished during a strong storm around 10 p.m. Friday.

“It’s like the Bermuda Triangle,” Shaw says. “You wouldn’t think that a four-foot-long rubber duck could vanish in western Ontario, but, he’s just poof! Like magic!”

Shaw tells CTV News he reported the missing duck to the OPP when he noticed it was gone near London and returned to canvass the region Friday night and all day Saturday.

“I drove back and forth over about a 27-hour period because you know? No duck left behind right,” he says.

According to Shaw, the duck is affectionately named “Teddy Ginsbird” and was built at a nude beach in Nova Scotia. 

“I finished him the night before Hurricane Teddy so that’s why he’s called ‘Teddy’ and then Ruth Bader Ginsberg died a couple days later and she was a personal hero of mine, so, I named his second name as ‘Ginsbird,’” he says.

Shaw explains he was planning to tour the trailer across North and South America, from Alaska to Chile after seeing how happy it made people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was just what everybody kind of needed in the pandemic to go ‘wait, there is hope, in rubber duck form!’ So, I’ve got to find Teddy,” he says.

Shaw says people from around the world online have been reaching out to him asking what happened to the trailer.

“There’s a little two-year-old girl that comes up every single day to see Teddy Duck and since I’ve been back here the last 36 hours people are like ‘WHAT HAPPENED TO TEDDY?’”

Shaw thinks the big duck is in a ditch somewhere along the highway and is asking all motorists to keep an eye out.

“His mission was to bring everybody positivity and love and a smile during the pandemic,” Shaw adds. “I know he’s just a giant plastic duck, but you can see the effect he has on people.”

If anyone locates or has any information about the missing duck, they’re asked to contact Ontario Provincial Police, or Shaw through Teddy’s Instagram page.

“I don’t know what to do but I’m not giving up just yet,” Shaw says.