Photo: Sylvia Hurd

A Princeton resident received a gift in the mail from family in France, but with an added bottle that her sender didn't include.

"My sister sent a parcel from France a couple weeks back, she was very excited about it and said it was going to be a book," Sylvia Hurd said. 

When her sister took it to the post office in France, she sent two books to family separately. One to her sister and one to her father. Hurd received the package on Thursday, her father's arrived four days earlier. 

"It was wrapped really really tight in packing tape, clear cellophane and it was hard to open up... I kind of butchered this parcel getting it open and a little orange bottle fell out." 

The bottle had little orange tape around the top but when Hurd grabbed it, it was leaking and had already seemed to be open.

"I thought, 'Oh thats odd, why would my sister pack something that wasn't sealed?'" Hurd said. 

The bottle had french writing on one side and the company name on the other.

When I got a hold of my sister I said 'Oh thank you, what a nice little bottle what is it?' and she said 'I don't know?'"

Her sister told her it translated to apricot oil after investigation, since the writing was in french. 

"I said 'Well oh thank you very much! and she says 'Well what do you mean? Where did you get the bottle?' I said, 'Well you gave it to me!' and she said 'No I didn't.'"

"And then the panic set in."

Her sister had wrapped the book, by itself in masking tape. When Hurd got it, it was clearly wrapped with packing tape and cellophane.

"So somebody somewhere along the way has opened it up from France and here has opened up that package and put this bottle in it," Hurd said.

The guess is that it could've been mistakenly wrapped during customs inspections. 

"But people said if it's from customs, there would've been a letter or a notification or a piece of tape saying that customs had opened it and there was none of that."

She did find out the bottle was from a legitimate company, Oil and Whiskey, out of Switzerland. But still found it strange the bottle was open already.

"I'm kind of angry now thinking that someone has tampered with it." 

Hurd wasn't sure where the strange addition came from and decided to return it back to the post office to see if they could figure it out. But without a tracking number, it's hard to place. 

"I mean if somebody can put a little bottle in a parcel, who knows what else they're popping in parcels!"