Plan B Forum

is true! The cheque was in the post..

US postman hoarded 20,000 letters

Some 20,000 pieces of mail - many more than a decade old - have been recovered from a postman's garage in the US city of Philadelphia.

Tubs of undelivered letters were discovered in April when the US Postal Service worker missed several days of work and managers visited his home.

The FBI said it took more than three postal vans to remove the mail, some of which dated back to 1997.

Investigators are still trying to find the postman so they can question him.

Delaying mail and stealing mail are both federal offences in the US.

The missing mail is said to have included large numbers of cheques, bills and official letters. Many have since been delivered to bewildered residents of Bustleton, a north-eastern suburb of Philadelphia.

"I got mail today from 2007," Kevin Carpenter told ABC News. "Pay-cheques, things like that that I needed - stuff from the social security administration and the IRS."

"I asked Dave [the postman] and Dave said he hadn't seen it but as soon as he got it he'd call me," Mr Carpenter added.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 683866.stm

Published: 2010/05/14 18:28:36 GMT

His actions will have changed the outcome of people's lives in some instances of this non-delivery.

I had a similar problem with the mail several years back. As lawyer in Massachusetts I have to re- register and pay an annual fee with the "Bar Overseers" (BBO) (there is a similar process in every state, as lawyers licenses are issued on a state basis, not by the federal govt). You have to get the check there in time, or you can be suspended. I duly sent my check and realized a month or later I had not received my annual bar card (lovely little laminated things, that allow us to enter state courts without going through security, or carry a cell phone into a court room in the federal courts). I then got a nasty letter from the BBO saying they had not received my check and my registration was over due. I called, said I sent it, recited the check number and date, and asked if they would waive the late fee. Unmoved they told me to send it asap, with the late fee, and I had now used up my one free "send it in late" card. I was rather upset at how damn nasty they were, especially the presumption that I wasn't telling the truth. Some months later I received a letter from the BBO sending me my original check, a reimbursement of the late fee, and explaining that a whole cache of letters had been found stuffed in an old, unused mail slot in a building in Boston. Someone determined the postman had decided not to deliver those particular letters and shoved them somewhere they would not be found. Bizarre!