Royal Mail delivers parcel 27 years late

Royal Mail took nearly three decades to deliver a parcel just six miles, reports The Daily Telegraph. The article continues:

Gill Smeathers received the package postmarked 4 November 1982 last Tuesday.

The cylindrical tube, still complete with 12.5p stamp, had travelled from Kettering to her home in Wellingborough, Northants.

It contained four secretarial certificates issued to her daughter Tracy from a course she took at Kettering Technical College from 1981 to 1982.

The cardboard tube was sent from Tresham College, formed when Corby and Kettering Technical Colleges merged in 1978.

Mrs Smeathers, a retired office worker, said: “I knew instantly when I saw the name of the college what it was.

“Tracy and I had a good laugh about it when I told her, but I’m not sending it to her. I’m keeping hold of it this time.

“Tracy thought I had received the certificates and I thought she had them so we never even realised they were missing.

“I’d love to know where it’s been all these years. I can only think it must have fallen behind a cupboard and got lost.”

Mrs Smeathers’ youngest daughter Tracy now lives in Canada and she has another daughter Kimberley who lives in Switzerland.

She has lived at the address where the package was sent for more than 30 years.

However, Royal Mail believes that parcel was franked by the original sender and never posted.

It has a more recent Milton Keynes postmark dated 15 February 2010.