A postal catastrophe was narrowly averted in Dundee after a forgetful postman left his keys dangling from the door of a Lochee postbox.
Keys to dozens of postboxes in the east of Dundee were left in the door of the postbox on Thursday. Although most were only identified by number, some had tags identifying their location by name including one for the postbox outside the Wellgate Centre.
Thousands of items of mail could have been plundered from postboxes across the city had the keys been stolen.
Fortunately, Dundee man Robert Fitchet grabbed the keys and contacted The Courier but, he said, only after seeing off a youth who was about to take them, and being given short shrift by Royal Mail.
“I was coming down from the doctor’s and I saw the boy walk away and leave the keys at the back of five o’clock,” he said.
“I waited around a bit because I thought he would realise his mistake and come back for them, but he didn’t appear.
“Then some young lad in a shellsuit saw them and was going to take them so I got out the car, told him to leave them alone and took them.”
Mr Fitchet went to his father’s house in nearby Tofthill and called Royal Mail but was given little assistance.
“I was put through to a call centre in England somewhere and they told me I would have to call the local sorting office,” he said.
“But when I asked them if they had a number they weren’t able to give me one.”
Mr Fitchet said someone could easily have used the keys to steal mail and gained access to personal information that would have made it possible to commit identity fraud on a massive scale.
He added, “People could have been putting anything in post boxes, from Mother’s Day cards to census forms.
“It’s ridiculous people trust Royal Mail as much as they do the police.”
Mr Fitchet handed the keys back to a postman sent to search for them in Lochee on Thursday night, nearly two hours after they had been left in the postbox.
A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said, “Obviously, on this occasion there has been a human error and the postman has forgotten to take his keys.
“We sent someone out to look for them as soon as it was noticed.
“We are extremely grateful to the customer who found the keys and tried to contact us, and will be stressing the importance of security to staff in the sorting office.”