A couple of weeks ago, Ina Mansika lost her phone in the sea while at the docks near Hammerfest in Norway.
Luckily for her, a friend was nearby to help fish it out. Not one of her companions - her phone was returned by a friendly beluga whale.
The group had walked down to the docks hoping to spot the beluga whale, which had been reported to be hanging out in the area. They laid down on the dock, hoping to catch a glimpse of it and maybe pat it in case it came near.
Not much is known about the friendly whale, though it did previously seem to be wearing a harness of some sort. As such, the belief is that it might have been trained by the Russian navy as a sort of spy, probably with a GoPro previously attached to that harness. The whale had since been freed of the harness and continues to linger nearby.
"I had forgotten to close my jacket pocket and my phone fell in the ocean," Mansika told The Dodo. "We assumed it would be gone forever, until the whale dove back down and came back a few moments later with my phone in its mouth!"
The group luckily managed to capture the heart-warming moment on camera. "Everyone was so surprised. We almost didn't believe what we saw," Mansika said. "I was super happy and thankful that I got my phone back."
The phone was obviously rendered inoperable by the inundation, but that's a small price to pay to have a friendly be your personal helper, even if only for a moment.
It's unclear whether the whale continues to remain near humans because its supposed training made it unfit to survive in the wild. Either way, local authorities are keeping an eye on the creature, and hope to eventually relocate him to a sanctuary in Iceland.