Woman’s ‘Message In A Bottle’ Sent Back To Her With An Angry Letter Telling Her To Stop Littering

ByMF Jones

A woman who regularly lobbed plastic bottles with letters inside into the sea has received a stern reply from someone telling her to stop littering.

Lorraine Forbes, 58, has been sending messages in bottles off the coast of East Sussex for years in the hope of making a romantic connection.

Her letters mostly just end up on the shores of nearby beaches, but they have reached as far as France and Holland as well.

Although she’s had a few letters back, none of the responses have ever led to any romance. Well it looks like it’s going to stay that way after she was put off the practice for good when a recent response told her to stop polluting the ocean with plastic bottles.

The note read: ‘Please stop throwing rubbish in the sea. It goes to Pevensey Bay or Normans Bay, one day later. Many thanks, a rubbish picker.’

Actually a polite request, but the real brutal part was that the sender posted it to Lorraine in a box full of rocks that also contained the bottle and message she sent. The parcel cost her £7 to receive, which she said made the response particularly ‘nasty’.

Absolutely superb work, whoever you are.

A woman was left shocked after her 'message in a bottle' was sent back with an angry letter - telling her to stop littering. // Lorraine Forbes, 58, has long been sending plastic bottles with letters inside them out to sea with hopes of sparking a romantic connection with a stranger. Her messages have received responses from as far as Holland and France over the years - but she says that they have mostly washed back up on the shores of nearby beaches. However, Lorraine, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, recently received a ?nasty? shock when one of her letters on the back of a John Lydon gig flyer came back with an angry note from a litter picker. Photo released 14/11/2025

Lorraine, who lives in Eastbourne, explained her motivation: ‘I have been sending the letters for years. Whoever writes back to me rarely want to meet me, they just tell me where they found them.

‘I just wanted a bit of romance. It has always been a hobby of mine. It is an old-fashioned thing.

‘It was a cowardly litter picker who sent me the response. I had to pay £7 to receive it. I think that it is really nasty. They were trying to make a point and teach me a lesson.’

The person didn’t reveal their name or address, which made Lorraine even angrier.

‘If they had I would demand that they give me my £7 back.’

She did admit though that she’d been told off previously for littering the sea, and that this recent experience has pretty much convinced her to stop sending out messages in bottles.

‘Eastbourne Harbour have told me off before for throwing the bottles into the water, they keep trying to stop me.

‘I probably won’t keep doing it. This has made me realise that environmental health could find my letters with my name and address and I might get in legal trouble.’

How can she be worried legal action will be taken against her if she’s just blabbed on herself to the Metro? The mind boggles.

Either way, if she had managed to find love through this technique, I think we could cut her some slack. But as it never turned out that way, Lorraine has basically been polluting the ocean for no good reason. Put her on community service and have her clean up a few beaches to make amends, I reckon.

For a look at the Big Mac carton that has remained in tact for over 30 YEARS, click HERE.

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