A B.C. family is upset after they said they received an envelope that had been sliced opened and their gift cards inside went missing.
Canada Post has since apologized to the Bayley family, which lives in Crofton, B.C., approximately 45 kilometres south of Nanaimo.
Family members told CTV Vancouver Island they鈥檙e concerned that their mail was opened.
鈥淥n Friday, my husband went to pick up our mail 鈥� at the local post office,鈥� Julie Bayley recounted. 鈥淗e noticed that one of the card [envelopes] was opened on the side.鈥�
Her son Jared said his father believed the cut appeared to have been an intentional 鈥渋ncision.鈥�
鈥淲e actually phoned our relatives the next day, who sent it, and they said that they had included gift cards in the letter 鈥� so the gift cards were gone,鈥� he said.
The Bayleys said they receive cards and gift cards from family in North Vancouver, every year.
A Canada Post statement said the Crown corporation apologized for 鈥渢his unfortunate and rare incident鈥� and that it took 鈥渕atters and the security of the mail very seriously.鈥�
In the family鈥檚 case, they believe the only missing items were Tim Hortons gift cards. But Bayley said that for other families, something more valuable could have gone missing.
鈥淥ur main concern with wanting to talk about this is that it could be happening to other people,鈥� she said.
Her son said most families might have simply overlooked the opened envelope 鈥� completely unaware that potential gifts were missing.
鈥淚f we hadn鈥檛 known that these relatives send gift cards to us, we might not have phoned them and tried to investigate it,鈥� Jared said.
The Canada Post statement went on to add that, 鈥渨hile we obviously can鈥檛 get into details, Canada Post has procedures in place to ensure the safety of the mail.鈥�
鈥淲hile it may have been difficult to identify what may have caused the damage to the envelope, such as a sorting machine, tampering with the mail is considered a very serious offence,鈥� it added.
But Bayley and her son burst out laughing at Canada Post鈥檚 response and said, 鈥渢here鈥檚 no way a machine would have got a perfect cut like that.鈥�
The Bayley family is hoping for a thorough investigation.
