St. Edmund Hall students were delighted by this week’s safe return of their MCR teddy bear mascot, who went missing under mysterious circumstances over two months ago.
It has since come to light that members of the Christ Church GCR abducted ‘Julian’ the teddy bear and took him on a day outing to Paris. The kidnappers revealed their plot by publishing a photo story of the trip on BuzzFeed, which has since gone viral.
According to ‘The Visitor of Christ Church’, an anonymous collection of Christ Church students linked with the theft, four students kidnapped Julian on a “midnight sting operation” on 8 March.
The Visitor told Cherwell, “During the past six weeks, Teddy has spent time with different members of the GCR, and all of us here at Christ Church have come to love him.”
“He made his first official appearance as a Member of the House on May Morning. It was around this time that we began to hear rumours that Teddy Hall were looking for their mascot and GCR Secretary Josephine Rendall began circulating notice of Teddy Hall’s desire to have him back. Teddy was heartened that someone had finally taken notice of his absence, and decided to return home.”
Rendall arranged this week’s handover with Teddy Hall, but not before Christ Church students had the last laugh. Last Friday afternoon, Christ Church members “moved by their overflowing love for the bear” arranged for an anonymous student to fly to Paris with Julian at 6am the next day.
“Teddy spent a lovely day in Paris (shout-out to the Minnie Mouses from Brenda’s hen do) and was back at Christ Church before dawn. He spent his last day at Christ Church in the loving embrace of our members,” the Visitor reported.
The BuzzFeed story shows Julian visiting various attractions and taking photos with tourists and Parisian locals. Dressed in a Christ Church hoodie, the Teddy Hall mascot travelled to the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs de Mars, the Eiffel Tower, and the Shakespeare & Company bookshop.
The photo story also shows an airport security guard handcuffing the bear, with the caption, “Teddy was shitting himself. He was worried there might be some trace substances on him after that crazy Freshers Week party!
The Teddy Hall MCR received their mascot on Monday, to great acclaim on Facebook. The official St Edmund Hall Twitter account welcomed Julian back, reporting that he had been returned with a souvenir photo from his captors.
The bear’s return has been greeted with joy, with Teddy Hall DPhil student Gemma Prata among those relieved by the bear’s return to the college this Monday.
“It’s great to have him back in one piece, although we would have appreciated having him back before the rugby Cuppers final which he always used to go along to – the Hall lost by a very small margin to St John’s/St Anne’s!” Prata
commented.
“We were going for our third year in a row as champions and Teddy’s presence could have made all the difference!”
Julian the teddy was unavailable for comment.
