Housewives targeted by anonymous letters

Maria Foy. Photo / Doug Sherring

Auckland housewives have been targeted by a malicious letter-writer who has posted letters accusing them of having affairs.

Mangere woman Maria Foy said she found the note, scrawled in red marker and in a stamped, sealed envelope with her address printed on it, when she checked her mail yesterday. Her name was not on the envelope.

It was written in broken English and read: "your wife having affair".

Foy said the note disturbed her so much, she reported it to the police who told her to put it in a plastic bag and not to touch it too much.

"I felt sick, absolutely sick, that someone would send this. Lucky for me, I decided to ask my neighbour if she had received anything and she had. So it looks like someone is sending these out around the neighbourhood," she said.

The mother-of-two said the prank was "potentially dangerous" if it was sent to someone in a volatile relationship.

"The fact that someone is going out making these accusations where you can only go on someone's word [to prove it's not true] ... my husband knows me well enough and trusts me but it is a horrible situation," she said.

"People need to be aware that just because someone puts something like this in your letterbox, you shouldn't believe it."

Her neighbour, Mary Fakalata, received an identical note, which left her feeling upset and scared.

"I was standing in the kitchen trying to work out what's going on. I thought maybe a friend was playing a prank so I checked again and there was no sender," she said.

"After I studied it again I put it in the rubbish ... it was very upsetting, so scary. I thought maybe someone had been watching me all day although I know for sure it's not true. I couldn't do anything yesterday, I was just so lost."

Fakalata said her husband suggested it might be from someone trying to split them up.

Counties Manukau Police spokeswoman Kimberley Mathews said if people were receiving these notes and were concerned for their safety they should report it to police.

"Police urge anyone engaging in this type of behaviour to consider the consequences of their actions," she said.