"I got mail today from 2007", 20K pieces of mail found in mailcarrier's home

[Liberal_in_LA]

Checks, bills and even a college acceptance letter from 2007 were among 20,000 letters found inside the garage of a Philadelphia postal carrier, CBS station KYW-TV reports.

When the mailman missed several days of work in April, postal officials went to his home and found tubs and tubs of undelivered and unopened mail. The postal worker, who has yet to be identified, worked in Northeast Philadelphia.

One recipient was desperate to receive a $900 check in December 2007. The letter just arrived on Thursday.

"I got mail today from 2007. Paychecks, things like that that I needed. Stuff from the Social Security Administration, I.R.S.," resident Kevin Carpenter said.

Carpenter said he had asked the worker he knew as "Dave the mailman" to be on the lookout for the check.

"I asked Dave and Dave said he hadn't seen it, but as soon as he got it, he would call me," Carpenter explained.

Some of mail found in the postal carrier's home dated as far back as 1997.

One of the letters that was undelivered was a 2007 acceptance letter from West Chester University. The recipient, who received the letter on Thursday, is now a senior in college.

Delaying mail and stealing mail are both federal offenses. Investigators have yet to question the mailman because they have not been able to locate him.

http://www.topix.com/news/weird/2010/05/20k-pieces-of-mail-found-in-mailmans-philly-home

[mikelgb]

1. I guess he finally got the letter he was looking for

[Ron Green]

2. He went non-postal.

[Codeine]

3. "Newman!"

[Incitatus]

4. Yes, it must have rained those days. nt

[tridim]

6. Not rain, nor sleet, nor.. IT'S THE FIRST ONE!

:rofl:

[tridim]

5. HAHA he was my first thought too. :)

[mitchum]

7. Damn you!

Beat me to it

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. A rare thing that happens every once in awhile.

It is rarely theft.

Carriers are under tremendous pressure to deliver on schedule by supervisors. They sometimes hide mail that they haven't been able to deliver, hoping for a lighter day when they can pick it up from wherever they hid it, and deliver it later.

More common, is dumping mail, usually advertising fliers and such.

Occasionally, it's just nut cases who, for whatever reason, take the stuff home with them.

When discovered, they are fired. Sometimes prosecuted, particularly if it's theft.

[ashling]

11. A mail carrier is in possession of that mail for one purpose

which is to deliver it in the course of his/her regular deliveries. If undelivered, it should be returned to the postal facilities.

Any other possession of the mail is unauthorized and is tantamount to theft ... no matter what legal or regulatory niceties are used.

[Bitwit1234]

9. When I lived in Indiana in 1976 we had a substitute

mail man. Our mail was sporadic. But I would see him go down to the end of the lane where there was a dumpster. And he took out a large envelope and threw it in. Curious I told my husband because I certainly couldn't reach it. But what he did find was stacks of mail. The mail man got tired of delivering all that mail and threw it away. We called the post office, they came and investigated and found three or four days mail. A lot was first class in the dumpster. Naturally the guy got fired. They didn't tell any one, but a new mail man delivered the collected mail. But we knew it because we had reported.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. that's really awful. really really awful. Lazy $%#@

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I was wondering why I did not get a census form.

A real one, I mean.
Michael Steele's "census" found me with no problem.

I can blame it on the guy from Philly.
Works for me.