Garston grandmother angered over parcel stuffed up snowman

The decorative artificial snowman, which the Ashwood household annually puts on show during Christmas, became the unlikely protector for a delivery they were expecting.

It was sent to their Garston home on December 10, but with no one being at home to accept the delivery, the postman appeared to absurdly decide that the “safe place” alternative to leave the parcel would be inside the snowman.

The unusual note explained the parcel was left inside the snowman

Sandra Ashwood says that her husband returned home hours later, when he realised that the parcel was actually left in the unusual spot.

She said: “He must have pulled it out of the ground, it’s pegged so it doesn’t blow away, and he just shoved the parcel under the snowman.

“And from the state of the parcel, it’s not something that got up there really easily. He must have really shoved it up there because the parcel’s quite big.”

The snowman was forcefully pulled up to stuff the package inside

When the parcel which contained a gift for her grandson was found, the envelope appeared quite ripped.

Mrs Ashwood continued: “I just couldn’t believe it, because it had lights on it and it lights up, so it could have caught fire. If we hadn’t been in later, it could have got hotter and hotter and it could have caught fire, that’s my belief.”

She questioned why it could not be left at the neighbour, or at other alternative spots by the shrubs or the bins.

“I just don’t know what possessed him to do that, I just don’t understand,” she said.

While Mrs Ashwood is upset over the mishandling of her gift at the “bizarre” spot, she admits she sees some humour in how unusual the situation is.

Sandra Ashwood with the snowman

However her main anger stemmed from the Royal Mail taking a while to respond to her complaint, as they only apologised this week after a prompt from the paper.

She added that the “parcel could have been damaged” and it “shouldn’t have happened”.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Every single item of mail is important to us.

“Our policy, which we regularly reinforce to our delivery colleagues, is to deliver all parcels and letters to our customers' addresses, a neighbour or a designated safe place.

“We are looking into what has happened on this occasion and are getting in touch with the customer directly to apologise and discuss the matter further.

“Customers who have questions or concerns about our service should contact our customer service team via royalmail.com or by calling 03457 740 740."