Letterbox vouchers baffle mum

MIKE SCOTT/Taranaki Daily

SECRET SANTA: Stacey Ross with two-year-old son Brayden at their letterbox where a mystery donor has been delivering grocery vouchers, once a fortnight, all year. They want to say thank you.

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Stacey Ross is one woman who doesn't need any more mystery in her life.

Every fortnight this year, Stacey, her husband Tony, and their two-year-old son Brayden have opened their letterbox to find an un-stamped envelope from a secret source.

Inside the envelope is always a grocery voucher for the same amount, from the same store, addressed in the same way - with Stacey, Tony, and Brayden's initials on the front.

At first, Stacey thought the vouchers were simply a thank you gift from a friend she had helped fix a computer.

When the friend denied it was her, Stacey accused her mother - but was wrong again.

After the third time, she started writing down the vouchers' serial numbers and called the supermarket to find who had bought them.

"I tried to track them down but they were really cunning," Stacey said.

"`At first they just wrote `Mum' and then they started putting our names down instead."

As the envelopes were usually delivered late at night, Stacey tried staying up, lights off, to catch the mystery donor in the act.

"We'd be sitting there, in the lounge, and hear a car and run up to look out the window,' she said.

"It nearly got to the stage of setting up a webcam in the letterbox."

Many times throughout the year Stacey would think she had it figured out, only to have the donor do something different like write in a coloured pen, or change their handwriting to put her off the trail.

"After the first two or three months we started getting really humble," she said.

"It's restored our faith in the kindness of human kind."

Stacey didn't want to say how much the vouchers were for, but said the family had certainly appreciated them.

"It just meant we had a little bit extra, to treat ourselves now and again ... you do watch what you spend these days, especially with little ones."

With the last voucher, the family received a Christmas card, which Stacey thinks will be the end of their adventure.

In block letters, obviously trying to disguise their handwriting, someone had written, "If these small tokens have put a smile on your faces this year then they have accomplished their purpose ... it has been a privilege."

Stacey has decided to respect the benefactor wanting to remain anonymous, and has stopped trying to find them, thinking it would spoil the fun.

"Even if we never, ever find out who it is we at least hope they know they made a difference to us.

"It did make us smile and it certainly gave us the run-around ... I hope they have a happy Christmas as well," she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News