Message in a Bottle From Rhode Island Found 2,400 Miles Away by Portuguese Teen — Who Sent It?

Christian Santos found the message in Portugal, and a letter indicated it'd been sent off in 2018 by a teenager in Rhode Island. Now he's searching for the sender

Christian Santos. Photo: Courtesy Molly Santos

It took more than two years, but a message in a bottle sent off from New England finally found a recipient, some 2,400 miles away.

Christian Santos, 17, is known to pluck plastic objects out of the water near where he lives in Portugal as a way of helping the environment, he told the Boston Globe.

So it wasn't unusual for him to grab an apparent energy drink bottle bobbing in the ocean in the Azores, near the island of São Jorge, while fishing spearfishing with his cousin.

What was unusual, however, was the fact that this bottle had a message inside, written in orange marker on an index card.

"I picked it up and looked inside and there was a paper in there," Santos told the Globe. "I thought it was interesting and went to show it to my mom."

The note read: "It is Thanksgiving. I am 13 and visiting family in Rhode Island. I am from Vermont. If found email [e-mail]."

Courtesy Molly Santos

If it wasn't coincidental enough that the bottle had made it all the way across the ocean, Santos said what was even more surprising was that he and his family used to live nearby in Boston, before moving to Portugal when he was 5.

"What are the chances of someone from Portugal, who can actually read English, finding that and understanding what it says?" mom Molly Santos told the Globe.

Courtesy Molly Santos

Molly wrote on Facebook that they'd tried emailing the address given, but have yet to receive a response, and are hoping that people sharing her post on Facebook will eventually lead them to the writer.

"I would like to tell them I found it, where it was and what I was doing," Christian Santos told ABC affiliate WCVB. "We're going to be friends for life."