View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Monday 25 January 2010

The lost parcel

Although I'm currently in Holland, I am posting this story on Atlantic Lines, as it is firmly an island story. A blogger in North Uist posted an image of a parcel on her blog the other day. It had arrived in her home after an epic journey through Shetland and the Uists. The sender, a man in a small town in Germany, had misspelled the name of the island of Unst, calling it Uist instead. After the parcel had gone through nearly all the three postal code areas in the Uists (HS6, HS7 and HS8), the postman left it with someone sharing the same surname as the addressee. And she decided to enlist the help of the global community, of which I am (with everybody reading this) a member.

I looked up the sender's address and found a telephone number in an on-line German telephone directory. I rang it, and fortunately the man answering it spoke English, better than my German which is exceedingly rusty. He told me that the packet was in fact intended for a Shetland family. For reasons of privacy, I cannot go into details, but I managed to find full address details and a telephone number. These I forwarded to the lady in North Uist and the package should be on its way to Shetland by tomorrow.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, interesting how things happen. We used to get packages mixed up from the next street over who had exactly the same house number as ours but a different street name. The road turned and twisted and so the route drivers assumed that to keep going straight would continue the road name they were meant to be on "as Belvedere". Wrong. They have to turn left to stay on Belvedere. So 1179 Peninsula always got our packages since Belvedere "turned into Peninsula" w/o the sharp turn. lol. The mail man knew us and the route and was used to it but the box shipper, UPS, was not. We became to know these other folks on Peninsula pretty well and would set off to take each other packages. Once a man at church dropped off a video there that was meant to be left at our house and our whole congregation was wondering where the video went. lol. Gave me an opportunity to "plant a seed" about God by doing this, too as the person needed to talk one day as I came to pick up the video and invited them to come to church or at least to seek God in their endeavors. God works thru us sometimes in missing packages. What a nice thing you did to connect the people up that needed to be connected. Hope all is well in the circumstances. Take care.

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  2. Good evening Detective Inspector...you did very good works !!
    What an amazing thing the internet truly is.
    Love Sybil

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  3. Terrific! I'm glad you could help see that package on its way. And how smart of the lady to look for help on the internet.

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  4. Well Well what a story Guido and what a great person you are.It's just the kind of good deed I would have wanted to do too.I have done similar things with only letters.It's a great feeling though when you learn the post has arrived and all down to your own kindness.It doesn't take much does it to do a kind deed for anyone?. Have a great break.Take Care God Bless.Kath xx

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  5. Well! It's a small world..isn't it? Neighbourliness on the internet.
    Well done Guido. (Detecive Inspector) lol

    Jeanie

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  6. that was a wonderful thing to do my friend....

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  7. Posted on behalf of Frank Peterhoff

    Dear Friends from the North/North West of bonnie Scotland.

    Unst, Uist and Uig - these names are very confusing for a simple mind from Upper Bavaria. And confused I was when writing my mail in a Pre-Christmas Hurry. So my little parcel made a kind of Odyssey from Mysterious highlands to magic islands on the edge of the stormy Atlantic. But thanks to the clever natives there who have a good command of even the most advanced technologies the matter ended well.
    Thanks to everyone who helped me to correct my blunder.
    A hundred thousand greetings to you all from an Alpine valley where we enjoy a lot of snow at the moment.
    Yours, Frank Peterhoff

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