Vancouver hotel lifts man's lifetime ban 17 years after seagulls destroyed his room

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A man was welcomed back to the luxurious Fairmont Empress hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia when he apologized 17 years after more than 40 seagulls destroyed his room when he left a suitcase full of pepperoni next to an open window.

Nick Burchill posted a copy of his apology letter along with a photo of his return to the hotel on Facebook, which has been shared more than 4,000 times.

Burchill wrote that he was young and didn’t realize how aggressive the west coast gulls could be. He says he was visiting Navy buddies who had requested he bring along some of their favorite pepperoni, and he brought enough for a whole ship. When he realized his room didn’t have a fridge, he decided to keep the suitcase next to an open window.

Burchill returned to find an entire flock of seagulls inside the room, eating all his pepperoni.

“I didn’t have time to count, but there must have been 40 of them and they had been in my room, eating pepperoni for a long time,” he wrote in the lengthy letter, explaining the many details of exactly what went wrong.

“I hope that you will see fit to either grant me a pardon, or consider my 18 years away from the empress as ‘time served.’”

Burchill says the hotel informed him that he is now welcome back any time he wants, but this time, he might want to leave the pepperoni at home.