Taylor Swift's unopened fan mail found in dumpster

Taylor Swift in concert. Photo/AP

Hundreds of fan letters sent to Taylor Swift have been found unopened in a dumpster.

The country superstar was caught out when a woman found the letters in a dumpster behind a Nashville school, according to reports.

She took them to WKRN-TV, who contacted Swift's management

Her spokeswoman Paula Erickson said it was an oversight for the mail to be discarded before being read.

"Taylor gets thousands of fan letters everyday and they are delivered to her management office. After the letters are opened and read, they are recycled.

"The only explanation for any letters being unopened would be that a small batch of mail that was supposed to be delivered to Taylor was accidentally put with letters headed for the recycling center."

The Hollywood Reporter pointed out the incident is at odds with Swift's carefully managed public persona.

She met with 10-year-old cancer sufferer Lauren Hacker at Omaha's Children's Hospital on the weekend after answering a YouTube video appeal created by her family and regularly goes out of her way to tribute fans.

Part of her Myspace biography reads: "I've loved my fans from the very first day, but they've said things and done things recently that make me feel like they're my friends -- more now than ever before. I'll never go a day without thinking about our memories together."

- nzherald.co.nz