A woman was left disappointed after an Amazon courier stored a delivery in her household waste bin - which was emptied before she found the calling card.
When Helen Verrill, 50, returned home from a mini-break she found a calling card to say the driver left the gift in the bin, Teesside Live reports.
But a neighbour’s helpful gesture of putting the bin out ended in disaster.
The parcel was already on its way to landfill when the biochemist returned from celebrating her 50th birthday at the Star Inn At Harome, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire.
She told Teesside Live: "We went away for the night, came back the next morning and our neighbour had kindly put the bin out.
"When we picked up the post in the letter box there was a note to say there was a parcel for us in the bin.
"Neither of us ordered anything, we have no idea what it is.
"I have never known them put it in with your household waste."
She added: "I think it's pretty poor to be honest, they could have left it with a neighbour, they could have done all sorts of things.
"My neighbours are retired and they are in all the time."
The note on the card left by the courier said: "Brown lid bin @ back to keep dry" and was accompanied by a smiley face scrawled on the card.
But Helen has been left with little to smile about as she wonders quite why the package was ever placed in a domestic waste bin in the first place.
"It's possible somebody has sent me something for my birthday", she said, adding that Amazon has said it will send her a hamper and is investigating the incident.
An Amazon spokesperson said: "We have very high standards for our delivery service providers and expect every package to be handled with care.
"We've notified the right teams internally and will work with the customers directly on matters related to their package delivery."
