A 13-year-old Russian boy found a message in a bottle
on a beach and was reunited with its German author, who wrote the
note 24 years ago, tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda reported
Wednesday.
Daniil Korotkikh found the beer bottle earlier this month when
walking on the beach near Kaliningrad and his father translated the
note inside, which was dated September 7, 1987, Komsomolskaya
Pravda reported.
"When I was walking along, I spotted a bottle in the dunes and
saw that there was a note inside," Korotkikh told Russian
television channel NTV. "Only a few people are lucky enough to find
a letter in a bottle."
The letter was signed by five-year-old Frank Uesbeck, who
enclosed his address in Coesfeld in western Germany.
Russian journalists tracked down Uesbeck, now 29, a married bank
worker, who said he barely remembered sending the bottle with the
note, which was written by his father and he signed in shaky
letters.
"I was shocked," Uesbeck told NTV television.
His parents still live at the address shown in the letter and
his father showed a photograph of Frank holding the bottle, which
they threw into the sea while travelling to Denmark.
"It's just incredible. Can it really be possible that the letter
is still readable after so many years in the water?" Uesbeck said
in an interview translated into Russian.
Korotkikh and Uesbeck were shown speaking via a video link and
the Russian schoolboy showed off the letter, which he has
framed.