How Facebook solved the stag’s head problem

• It cost the buyer only a bottle of wine. The husband was delighted and the deer is up there

Here’s a Yuletide story. Nothing to do with an ox, an ass, a stable, a star, camels or a new-born child, 2000 years ago. More a commentary on the way things are in 2012.

A lady decided to buy her husband a stag’s head for Christmas. He had always wanted one, mounted on a polished wooden plaque with the antlers branching aggressively forth, to put up on the wall and impress his guests.

Finally, she found such an object on e-bay and, after a couple of bids, she got it at what she said was a decent price. I do not know how much, but some hundreds of pounds were mentioned. Wow!

The trouble began when the lady tried to make arrangements to bring it home.

Condition of purchase

A condition of purchase was that it be picked up locally, since it could not be delivered. But she lived 240 miles (387 km) away. She contacted a delivery company.

“Sorry, Madam, can’t handle animal remains, danger of disease, no can do.” She tried another. Same response. “For God’s sake, he’s dead as a doornail,” she protested.

Which was a bit of a fib, too, not about the mortality, but the gender.

It seems the deer was not a stag but a hind (that’s a female to you and me), though I have seen the beast and I swear you could not tell the difference.

When a third company refused (“Health and safety, missus, more than my job’s worth”), the resourceful lady got on to Facebook and contacted all her friends with this message: “I need a package picked up in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and brought to Northumberland, can anyone help?”

The first response was interesting. “Why hello, Catherine, we haven’t talked in years! How are you?”

This lady was actually about to travel from Northumberland to Banbury.

Precisely the required journey, except in reverse. That would hardly help would it?

Many others got back in touch, old school friends, church friends, work friends, village friends, and expressed regret at their inability to assist.

An old pal

And then an old pal popped up. By amazing coincidence, she was due to travel from Banbury to Northumberland in a day or two and would be happy to help out. Big load? Small load? She had a 4WD, it didn’t really matter.

In the end it cost the stag’s head buyer only a bottle of wine for her long-lost friend. The husband was delighted and the deer is up there on the wall.

Couldn’t have done that a few years ago, could you?