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Hardwicke prankster's 'Oompa Loompas' Royal Mail hoax goes viral

A prankster who tweeted a hoax complaint from The Royal Mail has become a Twitter sensation after the letter went viral.

Stuart Whitman, 42, from Hardwicke, produced an authentic looking letter from a fake customer service adviser complaining about a number of odd incidences at his home.

Mr Whitman uploaded the letter to Twitter on May 4 and it has been retweeted more than 1,200 times.

In it, 'Steven Myatt', from customer services, wrote: "Whilst we appreciate the your actions are in no way malicious and are meant in good humour, a number of complaints have been made.

"Recent event cited include jumping out from behind the door naked and asking if it's First Class".

He added there had been a number of complaints and "we would kindly ask you desist your surprises".

However, there was no indication the letter was a hoax and The Royal Mail was today forced to confirm it wasn’t genuine.

Spokesman Nick Martens said: "We do not recognise the contents of this letter nor the name at the bottom and we would not use this process to approach customers."

Mr Whitman revealed he was inspired by William Donaldson, who used the pen name Henry Root to write hoax letters to the likes of Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s.

The IT specialist said: "I had been thinking about doing it for a while and I eventually decided to write it on a Friday night when I was bored.

"I took the time to give it the proper letterhead and printed it off before photographing it and posting it on Twitter.

"Normally nothing happens but I just sat there and my phone kept pinging from all the retweets. It just went mad."

Mr Whitman said he was weighing up whether to write the hoax letter from The Royal Mail or First Great Western Trains.

He added: "People kept asking if I had a thing against the Post Office but I don’t.

"The Royal Mail was an easy one to do as I’ve tweeted a few jokes about opening the door to the postman naked in the past.

"It took about five minutes to do and it looked good. I had no idea it would go like this, it has been retweeted 1,288 times.

"I am really chuffed, it was all done as a joke."

Just call me Mr. Killjoy:

Lord Jim wrote:Oh no Dale, I believe you've got the wrong end of the stick on that....

A "Mr. Killjoy" would be someone who pours cold water on an amusing story with some factual information...

By contrast, our resident Pseudo-scientist from Santa Cruz constantly finds himself on the receiving end of the cold water of factual information...

Which makes him "Mr. Endlessly Amusing", not "Mr. Killjoy"....