Laughter at What Mailman Hears While Delivering Parcel: ‘Window Was Open’

A mailman couldn’t help but laugh at what he heard while delivering a package—and he wasn’t alone in finding it hilarious.

Homeowner Lauren Barnes, from Lincolnshire in the U.K., also saw the funny side; so much so, in fact, she decided to share footage of what happened on social media.

A video of the incident, which was captured on Barnes’ doorbell camera, was shared to TikTok under the handle @laurenb_7. It went viral with over 514,000 views and counting, much to Barnes’ delight and embarrassment.

Recalling the incident, Barnes told Newsweek: “I wanted the earth to swallow me up right then and there.” There might have been a time when a homeowner would be happy to answer a knock at the door, even if they were not expecting anyone.

But, these days, people are a little more wary, particularly in the U.K. In 2023, a YouGov survey of just over 4,900 U.K. adults revealed that nearly 1 in 5 respondents would be “fairly unlikely” to answer the door to someone expected, while almost 1 in 10 would be “not likely at all.”

Barnes doesn’t fall into either category, but she might think twice about being so free and easy about answering the door again after what happened one weekend recently. “I was just relaxing, doing normal weekend things at home,” she said. “I went to the toilet, which is located next to our front door, when the postman rang.”

The clip she shared to social media, filmed on the doorbell cam, picks up what happened next. In the footage, the mailman can be seen approaching the door with a package. He presses the doorbell once and waits.

After a few minutes, a female voice can be heard. It is Barnes, saying: “I’m on the loo, darling.” Barnes said she was actually responding to her partner, Jonathan, who had asked her to answer the front door.

There was just one problem. “I forgot the window was open,” Barnes said. As a result, the mailman assumed that Barnes was talking to him and, with a smirk, told her “Rightio, I’ll leave it where you said,” before heading around the side of the house to put the package in a safe space.

As the video concludes, Barnes can be heard laughing at the mailman’s response, while he too is chuckling as he goes about the task at hand. “Jonathan came downstairs, and I told him what had happened, and he couldn’t stop laughing,” Barnes said.

It was only later that she got the idea of sharing the footage to social media. “When looking through my doorbell alerts for the day, I noticed that it had captured the moment,” Barnes said. “It was too funny not to share with everyone else.”

The video kept plenty on TikTok amused. “I’d never order a single thing ever again,” one viewer wrote.

“I’d have flushed myself down the toilet with embarrassment,” another said, with a third writing: “Love how he was so professional about it!”

Barnes is definitely going to think twice before answering the door again. “I don’t think I’ll be able to live it down,” she said.