Great-gran has Christmas card returned after 16 years

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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A GREAT-gran was astonished when Royal Mail returned a Christmas card and £10 postal order which was originally posted to her son 16 years ago.

Pauline Schmidt, of Ellesmere Port, also received a letter of apology from the Royal Mail, saying it had a “zero tolerance policy” towards the delay and misdirection of mail and that an investigation was underway.

The postal order and card was originally sent by Mrs Schmidt’s late husband, Ove, in December 1996 as a Christmas present to her son Barry who at the time was serving a custodial sentence at HMP Liverpool.

The badly creased items were returned to Mrs Schmidt’s home address yesterday, completely out of the blue.

Mrs Schmidt, 67, said the non-appearance of the items had caused a falling-out between her son and his step-father, which had still not been resolved at the time of the latter’s death 11 years ago.

She said: “It was upsetting to see the Christmas card and postal order sent by my late husband, especially after all the trouble it had caused. My son and his step-father had a big argument over it, with my son accusing him of lying about sending it.”

The letter accompanying the returned items apologises for the “serious delay” in delivering them.

The letter, signed by Tony Nolan, the delivery office manager at Royal Mail Walton, said: “Unfortunately your item, along with a number of others, has recently been recovered after allegedly being withheld from delivery by a Royal Mail employee.

“I would like to apologise sincerely both for the delay and for any inconvenience this will have caused.

“This rare incident is currently under investigation.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We are looking into the complaint as a matter of urgency.”

[fishtank]

The letter, signed by Tony Nolan, the delivery office manager at Royal Mail Walton, said: “Unfortunately your item, along with a number of others, has recently been recovered after allegedly being withheld from delivery by a Royal Mail employee.

This has obviously been found in an ex/employee's house.
This could get very interesting.
16 years worth of delayed mail might be a record breaker.
Anybody seen an artic parked in somebody's street?