A postcard sent 30 years ago from South America by a Royal Navy veteran has finally reached its destination.
Neil Crocker sent the card while stopping in Chile in 1991 following a three-month tour of the Falkland Islands.
He said his father-in-law was therefore "slightly confused" when he saw the postcard land on his doormat at his home in Weymouth, Dorset, just earlier this week, the BBC reports.
Mr Crocker said he too was "shocked" to see the postcard, which was delivered by Royal Mail and which he only "vaguely" remembers writing.
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"I sent a number of postcards home and didn't really give it a second thought," he said.
In the affectionate card, Mr Crocker talked about how "the weather and the beaches are lovely" as he enjoyed his five-day break in Valparaiso, off the Chilean coast.
Although it is unknown where the postcard had been lying for the past three decades, it has the postmark "London 1991", meaning it had definitely reached the UK.
"For 30 years its been in a sorting office somewhere and eventually it's made its way to its destination - so it's quite a remarkable story really," Mr Crocker said.
"We'll probably never know where it's been - it's a mystery," he said.
Royal Mail said it was "difficult to speculate" on what may have happened to the card.
But they said in a statement "it is likely that it was put back into the postal system by someone recently, rather than being lost or stuck somewhere in the network".
