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 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.'
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