Orkney shop owner mistakenly orders 720 Easter eggs – more than entire population of the island

For the Orkney island of Sanday, Easter has come early.

Following a slight technical mishap on an order of festive treats, shop owner, Dan Dafydd, was delivered a whopping 720 chocolate eggs instead of the 80 he meant to buy.

And with a population of only 494 on Sanday, the delivery is enough to give every islander just about one and a half Easter eggs each.

“In my arrogance I was sat here thinking [the delivery company] have really messed up,” Mr Dafydd, who owns Sinclair General Stores, told Sky News.

“I thought they had sent us too many eggs. But when I went to complain I realised that it was totally my mistake and not theirs.”

After spreading the word about the comical over-order around the community, Mr Dafydd came up with the idea to raffle off 100 of the Easter eggs to one lucky winner.

“We do lots of competitions here, people love it,” the 39-year-old said, adding that when the word got out “the world went mad”.

“One of the businesses on the island put out a post to poke fun but also help us in an effort to sell tickets, and then Orkney radio picked up on it.

“Ever since then the world seems to have gone mad about this silly little tale of me over-ordering Easter eggs!”

‘People are calling from all over the world’

Mr Dafydd said he initially set what he thought would be an ambitious target of selling 200 raffle tickets, but within a week, he sold out.

“We added another 100 tickets and they have sold out, then another 100 have nearly sold out,” he said.

“Since all the media attention, we have got people calling in from all over the world buying tickets.”

All proceeds raised by the raffle will be donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which the shop owner said is often involved when incidents occur around the island.

The charity also has a personal connection to his business.

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“Being a small island, we are surrounded by sea, and the RNLI are very much ingrained in the community here,” he said.

“Our shop manager, who has been managing the shop long before we owned it, she is president of the RNLI Sanday branch.

“It just made sense to donate the money to the RNLI. It’s good that something positive can come out of a bit of a mistake and we can make some money for charity.”

When asked if he has saved some of the chocolate eggs for himself, Mr Dafydd said: “I haven’t touched any yet. The temptation is there and I’m sure at some point I will get one.”