Nabowla letterbox horror
• Cooper and Charlotte Hockley at their letterbox. Photo supplied.
By Daisy Baker
April 29, 2020
A local family has been left traumatized after finding a dead guinea pig wrapped in a t-shirt in their letterbox on Friday.
Nabowla resident Jess Hockley was going for a drive with her son Cooper to get out of the house, when they stopped at the end of the driveway to check the mailbox.
Ms Hockley said nine-year-old Cooper was the one to find the disturbing surprise.
“He jumped out of the car, went to the letterbox and got back in with this tightly rolled t-shirt on his lap,” she said.
“As he unwrapped it he screamed and was yelling ‘what is it?’.
“He threw the dead guinea pig to the ground.”
Ms Hockley said friends have suggested that perhaps someone thought it was their pet and were returning it to them, but she doesn’t believe that was the case.
“We’ve never owned a guinea pig. I find it unlikely that someone thought they were returning it to us,” she said.
“It was perfectly intact, it hadn’t been hit by a car, mauled, scratched or anything. I’m not sure if it was alive when it was put in the t-shirt because there were some little poos in there as well.
“Let’s just hope it’s a random one-off thing.”
The family’s letterbox is around 500 metres away from the home and Ms Hockley’s children would sometimes walk and check the mailbox as one of their jobs.
She said she no longer feels safe sending them to do this.
Ms Hockley believes it may have been a teen playing an awful practical joke.
Her message to whoever left it is clear: think before you act.
“I hope they feel some sense of shame or guilt because they’ve really disturbed Cooper – he’s having trouble settling at night and is really scared,” she said.
“If people are bored and doing things as pranks, they should think about their actions.
“I hope they will try and get their kicks in a less harmful way.”
The incident was not reported to the police.
The North East Animal Sanctuary has a limited capacity to take in small pets such as guinea pigs and rabbits should owners no longer be able to care for them.