A WAYWARD letter took a five-month diversion, ending up nearly 100 miles off course.
The envelope, which carries a Crowborough postmark, was headed for an architect's office in Ipswich when it was posted in January.
But in May it popped up in a post bag in Redhill town centre.
Rather than making the 99-mile journey from Crowborough's sorting office to Ipswich, the note appears to have taken 16 weeks to travel 25 miles in the wrong direction.
And Royal Mail staff cannot explain its lengthy disappearance.
On May 15 – 110 days after it was posted – the letter arrived in the Surrey Mirror office.
Receptionist Veronica Toner found the letter as she opened a mail sack.
She said: "I pulled it out and said 'gosh that shouldn't be there', then I realised it was from January.
"I thought it could be something really important like a payment or solicitor's letter.
"We have had envelopes trapped in the sacks before, but not for a long time."
The contents of the letter remain a mystery and it has been forwarded on to KLH Architects, its intended destination.
Staff at the firm, based in Poplar Lane, Ipswich, said their directors were too busy to discuss the wayward mail and simply asked for it to be sent on to them.
But Royal Mail staff claimed it was unlikely the letter had been in their care the whole time.
Spokeswoman Valerie Antoine said: "We deliver some 58 million items a day and the majority of items arrive safely.
"Without seeing the item it is difficult to speculate what may have happened, but it is extremely unlikely that this item of mail was in our system all this time."
Royal Mail's operating profit nearly trebled to £403 million last year. What's been your experience of the service? Call 01737 783869 or e-mail editor@surreymirror.co.uk
