A BUSINESS woman was “astonished” when a set of wedding photos mysteriously landed on her doorstep – 40 years after they were taken.
The black and white snaps were returned to her Edinburgh office after failing to reach their intended destination in Derby.
One features a smiling bride and groom and appears to have been taken in the sixties or seventies.
Sara Dodd, director of Net Resources Ltd, received the envelope containing the photos last year. Her web design and development company occupies the premises formerly used by the photographer – F Menzies – at Palmerston Place, Edinburgh.
There was no note accompanying the photograph but the name and address of the photographer was printed on the back of each one.
The photos were in their original envelope which bore the original 5d stamp and a “Photographs – Do Not Bend” warning.
The envelope was marked first class and had two “return to sender” stickers.
Two postmarks, one illegible, showed the envelope was still in the postal system in June 2006.
Mrs Dodd, from Edinburgh, called the arrival of the unusual item of mail “extraordinary”.
She said: “They just arrived in the daily post.
“I have no idea where they have been all this time.
“I was really bewildered because i saw the old envelope and looked at the old stamp but didn’t recognise it.
“I opened it and saw these old photos and thought they had been sent to the wrong address.
“Then I saw the address on the back and realised they were being returned.
“I assume the person they were being sent to never got them, or they moved.”
A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: “It’s unlikely that this item was in our system all this time. Almost certainly it was put back in a post box in February 2010.”
