'Unlucky' Valentine

The Sentinel learned of the incident after being contacted by the 4-year-old's grandmother, Grace Curry, also a resident of the Fountain Estate.

Grace said:" My granddaughter loves receiving cards in the post with her name on it. So I decided to buy her a Valentine's card designed for a child and I put a little necklace inside it and posted it."

The card, containing the necklace, was posted at Bishop Street last Thursday. However she said that when the card arrived back at the Fountain on Friday - via Co Antrim - the envelope had been tampered with and the intended gift was missing.

"The necklace had no monetary value. It's just the fact that the envelope had been tampered with. It greatly upset my granddaughter," said Grace.

The angry grandmother said she phoned Royal Mail to complain but didn't feel that her call was satisfactorily dealt with. She said: "The envelope was clearly sliced and cellotaped back together. I had to explain to her that there was no necklace."

The necklace was also taped to the inside of the card, so Grace believes that it had to be tampered with in order for the necklace to be removed.

Grace Curry also stressed that in no way does she believe that the postal delivery staff who operate in the Fountain were responsible for this, and said she believes that the card was tampered with somewhere after leaving her local post office and being returned to Londonderry for delivery to her granddaughter.

Royal Mail confirmed that all mail collected from locations across Northern Ireland is sorted by hi-speed machine at the Northern Ireland Mail Centre at Mallusk before being forwarded to local offices for final delivery.

In a statement to the Sentinel a spokeswoman for Royal Mail said the complaint was being investigated, adding: "We are sorry to hear that an item of mail has been tampered with as every item of mail going through our system is important to us.

"We have a zero tolerance approach to theft or interference with mail and will take decisive action against anyone found to have tampered with them in anyway. Our security teams work closely with our employees and managers to ensure such instances are detected and dealt with as swiftly as possible and we welcome convictions for those responsible.

"It goes without saying that the vast majority of our people are scrupulously honest and place the highest priority on safeguarding the mail entrusted to them for delivery."

Grace Curry maintained that she has great trust in Royal Mail, but she added :"Even though, it was very hard to have to explain this to a child."