Saturday, April 16, 2011

Rare book written by the Pope destroyed after hapless postman delivers it to recycling bin

A man has hit out after he bought a rare book written and signed by Pope John  Paul II - which was then destroyed after a hapless postman left it in a recycling bin.

Book dealer Christian White arrived home from a break to discover a note through his door from the Royal Mail saying the treasured book had been left in his recycling bin.

In a cruel twist of fate the bin had already been put out by a kind neighbour and the book, a 1994 edition of Crossing the Threshold of Hope, written by the late Pope John Paul II, ended up being recycled.

Christian, 42, who started his business in 2006, said: 'It's ridiculous but in some ways it's hilarious.

'It had good providence in the sense it had a nice little letter from the publisher saying it had been signed by John Paul II.

'Our recycling only gets collected once a month and I knew we'd be away so I asked my neighbour to put the bin out.  

'We weren't here to see the little red slip with its fatal message until it was too late. I can't believe something that good could end up in the recycling bin, it's so stupid and unnecessary. It beggars belief, how is it possible that the postman could be so stupid to  put a book, essentially a load of paper, in a paper recycling bin?'

The married father-of-five runs his rare books and manuscripts business from  his home in Ilkley, West Yorks, and had taken his family to visit his parents  in Norfolk during a half-term break in February. 
The postman put this flier through Mr White's letterbox and placed the item in the bin instead of returning it to the delivery office as rules state

The book dealer has dozens of books arriving every day and he had a tortuous wait to discover which item had been casually binned.

He said: 'As I'm a book dealer and I have books arriving all the time I couldn't be sure which book it was and had to wait for a few weeks for the other books I had ordered around that time to arrive. Lo and behold it was the John Paul II book which hadn't arrived. I was  devastated. It's not something that has ever happened to me before, but I've spoken to other people in the area who say it has happened to them.'

Mr White, who paid £250 for the book and believed it would go up in value because of the signatue was offered a refund by the American dealer who sent it.

The dealer acknowledged it should have been sent by recorded delivery.

Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005 at the age of 84 ending a 26 year papacy,  explained his views of various Christian beliefs, including his belief in God, his views of non-Christian and non-Catholic faiths, and Mariology in the  international bestseller.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: 'We would like to apologise for the correct delivery procedures not being carried out when an attempt was made to deliver  his package. A 'something for you' card should have been posted through the door informing  him that the package had been returned to the local delivery office and listing  various options available to him to retrieve it. Staff are always reminded of the action to take if a customer is unavailable  to accept a delivery.'

Source