This is a story about a package that was lost and was returned to it’s owner 6 months later.

First a brief history. Back in August 2006 I had sent Amanda a small tin of Tim Horton’s coffee and a birthday card for her birthday. I sent it on August 3rd, hopefully to get to her by August 30th so she could have a little taste of home. A couple of months passed and still the package had not arrived. I sent another birthday card in the meantime to which she received. We assumed because it was coffee that maybe the Taiwanese postal people figured it was drugs and it was kept. Either that or Canada Post lost it, which wouldn’t really surprise me.

Now jump to the present. On Friday when I came home from work I had received a delivery slip in the mail from Canada Post saying I had a package waiting for me to pickup. I hadn’t ordered anything lately and Amanda didn’t mention anything about sending a package to me. Of course the postal office closes at 6 pm so I had to wait till the next day to pick it up.

When I picked it up, I quickly noticed that it was my Tim Horton’s coffee and card being returned to me. I found it a little odd that 6 months later it would be returned even if it was rejected for whatever reason. But I also found it odd that Matt Kiazyk and my address was fully written out on the outside of the package and a Royal Mail stamp had been placed on the outside. Shaun was in the car so we opened it and found this note inside:

Hi Matt
My name is Paul I work at a book distribution centre in England. I opened a parcel the other day from Taiwan and found your parcel inside a parcel of books sent to us. I hope the coffee finds its way back to you so you can finally share it with Amanda. Confirm if you wish via email.
Paul

Somehow, my package ended up in England. And out of a random act of kindness, it was returned back to me. This guy named Paul in England spent the time and money to wrap the package back up and send it back to Canada. He left his email to which I have replied and said thank you. From what I can remember, that was my first time I was the recipient of a random act of kindness. Does anybody have any other stories?

And if anybody is wondering, I’m going to try and send the coffee again. This time, I’ll take it out of the can and put it in zip lock bags. Even though I think that looks more like drugs then me leaving it in the sealed can! We’ll see where it ends up this time!