A man has sent 4,800 messages in a bottle over the past 15 years, and has received thousands of replies, the BBC reported Monday in "the oldest form of social networking."
"I usually get about a 150 Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, souvenirs," Harold Hackett, 58. of Tignish, Prince Edward Island, said in an interview with the BBC. "I just love doing it the old way. The reason I won't put my phone number on my letters is they'd all call me back, and I wouldn't get any letters."
Hackett, who started writing the messages in 1996, said he has received replies from as far away as Africa, the Caribbean, the Netherlands, Iceland and the U.K. He said he sends 200 bottles per week and doesn't think he'll ever stop.
Many of his penpals have become regular correspondents, and their letters are on display at a nearby Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in Cavendish.
