A woman who sent a message in a bottle out to sea received an angry letter and a box of rocks in return. “I just wanted a bit of romance,” the 58-year-old from Eastbourne, England, said.
Lorraine Forbes hoped to spark a connection with a stranger, but was left shocked and dismayed upon receiving a message, scrawled on the back of a John Lydon concert flyer, demanding she stop littering, according to a report by KPVI.
“I just wanted a bit of romance,” Forbes said. “It has always been a hobby of mine. It is an old-fashioned thing.”
Forbes, who has lived by the seaside for three decades, added that she has been sending messages in bottles “for years,” receiving replies from Holland and France, with most of her letters washing up on the shores of nearby beaches.
Then, on September 5, Forbes took to the coast to set adrift another message in a bottle that included her name and address. And just over one month later, on October 7, she got a package in the mail that cost her $9 to accept.
The message, which arrived inside a box full of rocks, read, “Please stop throwing rubbish in the sea. It goes to Pevensey Bay or Normans Bay, one day later. Many thanks, a rubbish picker.”
“It was a cowardly litter picker who sent me the response,” Forbes said. “I think that it is really nasty. They were trying to make a point and teach me a lesson.”
“I will never know who the person is that sent me the letter. They refused to put their name to it. If they had I would demand that they give me my £7 back,” she added.
Forbes, who uses plastic bottles instead of glass so that they don’t shatter during their travels, noted that while she found the anonymous messenger rude, it made her realize that environmental health officials “could find my letters with my name and address, and I might get in legal trouble.”
“I probably won’t keep doing it,” she said.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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