We have heard a lot of strange stories from customers over the 17 years we've been in business, but this one takes the cake! Or rather, the salad...
Customer Brian R. emailed us:
We recently finished your Ecru Morning Rays puzzle and enjoyed it very much, but couldn't find one last piece.
Well, I was enjoying my dinner; that particular evening we were having a spinach salad.
I bit down and knew that something was not right...
Yep, somehow Brian "found" a puzzle piece in his salad!
The image had come off, but Brian's wife Maggie was able to improve the puzzle
with a heartfelt note on it instead.
While we can't beat what a special memory that is, we sent them a replacement piece anyways.
OK, so you I know some of you pragmatic puzzlers out there are wondering, "How the heck could that have happened?"
Well, we have heard a lot of strange stories about where missing pieces show up, and here's our theory: Maggie was wearing some pretty shirt or sweater with loose sleeves, she brushes the puzzle table at some point and a piece sweeps off the table into the loose sleeve. She goes to make dinner and out pops the puzzle piece into the salad.
Or they have a case of prankish puzzle pixies, sometimes that's the best explanation!
I had just finished the puzzle Atkinson on the River Greta only to discover a piece from the center of the puzzle was missing. I’m always so careful with the puzzles and immediately started looking everywhere for the piece. For two days I looked under every possible surface in hopes of finding it. I reluctantly reported it missing. The next day I was stripping the bed only to discover the missing piece on the floor on the far side of bed. Curious because the puzzle never goes into the bedroom. It must have hitched a ride on some piece of clothing. I’m glad I found it, but the discovery of where it was will certainly expand the search area for any future wayward pieces.
Also, I’ve had pieces stick to my clothing, just snag it a bit on a bit of wood grain and it can stick there for a bit. One time I had a piece fall down and I thought apparently onto or into my slipper, and I found it later outside my front door (where I had probably gone out to check on a puzzle delivery). It might have snagged on my clothing or something as well. Most of the time the pieces might fall at my puzzling feet and I can find it under my coffee table (on wheels) where it bounced.