Fake kidnapping letter found in bottle returned 53 years after sisters threw it into the ocean

A message in a bottle written by two sisters more than five decades ago has finally been recovered, bringing back emotional memories for one of its authors.

In August 1973, sisters Laurie Blair and Allison Spencer, then 9 and 16-years-old respectively, placed a handwritten note inside a Coca-Cola bottle and tossed it off the coast of Ocean City, New Jersey into the Atlantic Ocean.

The message, written by Spencer, was based on a fictional story that Blair was reciting to her about an imaginary kidnapping. Now, 53 years on, the message has made its way back to Spencer.

How the message found its way home

According to People, the letter read: “This bottle was set adrift on August 20th, 1973, on Second Street Beach, Ocean City, as my captors were transporting me to an island offshore in the Atlantic.”

“Please notify my family that a band of ruthless sponge fishermen are forcing me to dive for them in shark-infested waters. Please return this note to my home,” it continued. “You may have saved my life! Thank you! Laurie Blair.”

It was found by John Kauterman, co-founder of nonprofit Tidelands Initiative, who often finds messages in bottles when picking up trash along the coast. “I was like, ‘Wow … the bottle’s old.’ I peeked into it and … I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, yeah, we got a good one here,’” he said.

He returned it to Spencer, who now works as a biology teacher who now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

CBC As it Happens / Allison Spencer

Spencer claims the fake kidnapping is the brainchild of her sister: “Laurie’s the one with the imagination and always coming up with crazy stories.

“My sister passed away nine years ago. She had breast cancer, and she died only in her 50s and I really miss her a lot, so it’s really a wonderful, special thing to me that the note came back,” Spencer continued.

“It seems very miraculous to me that this note came back to me. She would be wildly entertained by these events.”