Mystery of one lost coin shipment solved

Last month I sold two foreign coins on eBay to someone in New York. A few weeks later the buyer contacted me and said the tracking showed the item arriving at a nearby post office and then it stopped moving. After waiting a few weeks I gave it up as lost and gave him a refund.

Today a strange envelope shows up in my mail. It had my name and address as both the sender and recipient. I couldn't make out the postmark. I could tell it had a coin inside. So I open it and I find the two lost coins. Accompanying them is a note that says "I found this letter lying in a snow bank while I was out walking and I could barely make out your address." The person didn't sign their name or give any other information.

First off it's really cool that someone took the time to send this back to me at their own expense. The coins were just worth a buck or two but they didn't have to do that. And second of all, nice job USPS dropping the mail in the snow. I wonder how often something like this happens?

 

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My guess is not very often but there are some Angels out in the World still.

 

The world still has some good “souls” left in it!
If you have time watch Mark Robers “200 Wallet Drop Test”.
He list the 20 most Honest & least honest cities to return a wallet.

 

When out walking I occasionally find addressed envelopes laying in the road, which I always pick up and re-post. If wet I dry them and re-post.
The issue may partly lie with the vehicles NZPost are using. Newest model for delivery is the open sided Paxster electric 4 wheeler - a scary little machine which is very accident prone. Letters are bundled in open crates around the dashboard and prone to wind whipping them away

https://resources.stuff.co.nz/conte...eeByTwo.1464x976.1khyuw.png/1500520705675.jpg

 

You must have a postal guy like mine.
We always get mail for the neighbors in our box...sometimes on our lawn.
Hes too busy on his phone talking to his friends to worry about doing his job correctly.

 

This is my mailman

 

Good for you! Glad there are still honest people. I unfortunately have one package I've never received, though I've gotten a refund and two I've mailed haven't arrived after a month so I had to issue refunds. COVID really has the postal service in a bind I suppose as it does most other industries. Luckily though, none of the transactions were for large amounts, but I sure would've liked the coins instead!

 

This describes mine too. We get our neighbors' mail about once a month and he's often talking on the phone while making his rounds. There have been a lot of reports of people not getting mail in my area. I guess there's a lot of people out sick.

 

I think the average for the USPS is about .51% of mail is lost each year for various reasons.

The USPS says "The Postal Service processes and delivers 429.9 million pieces of mail daily"

So they lose about 2.2 million pieces of mail each day. 312 days without sunday's, they lose 686.4 million pieces of mail and deliver a whopping 134.12 billion or so pieces of mail each year.

 

Yet they never manage to lose the forests worth of junk mail that whist it's merry way unto my mail receptacle...

 

they lose that too, just theres a lot more of that than packages or letters so you don't notice it being gone.

 

I keep a business Post Office Box, my Post Office personal are great and keep an eye out for my items. Its just one less set of hands that the item has to go through for retail delivery. it amazes me that there are sellers that do not ship to USPS Post Office Boxes. I cannot figure out why, I have asked and get no reply.

 

I would find it most interesting to know if it was found in the same neighborhood as the addressee. Could have been in an open mail box and the wind got it.

Glad you got them back. Have you contacted the original buyer to see if they still want them? LOL

 

Yes there are a few nice people in the world. When I was managing my post office every once in awhile I would find a wallet in a blue collection box. We always found the owner and mailed it to them. Not once did I ever receive a call thanking us for returning it, even if it had money in the wallet.

 

I, too, have problems with our "mail person". They (I say They, because it seems they change "mail persons" frequently.) We get mail for a house on the next street. They have they same house number. They get ours too. The street names are not similar either. Ours is Wayne and theirs is Wautaga. We have the same trouble with mail to and from our next door neighbor. Our house is 209 and theirs is 205. I contacted the manager of our post office and was told that mail is sorted by a machine and when something is similar, the machine makes mistakes. My grandfather was a mailman for 40 years. A live person sorts the mail at the post office and the mail is put in the mail bag. My grandfather would take the letters in hand and look at each parcel to confirm that the mail is for the right house. He worked at the Indianapolis Post Office for 20 years and moved to L.A. and worked there for 20 years. He told me that he only got one complaint. It was an older lady and she tried to get my grandfather to come into her house for a cup of tea. He told her he couldn't, but said he could sit on the porch with her and have his cup of tea. Her complaint, he would never stop for a cup of tea with the lady. It would put him behind in his schedule.

 

Mail carriers make two mistakes on a regular basis. They get the house number correct but the wrong street or they get the street correct but the wrong house number.

@Jim Dale Sounds like the route you live on does not have a regular carrier and the substitute carrier doesn’t know the route. The manager of your post office gave you a blow off answer. Carriers also sort mail by hand in the office. It just not like it used to be.

 

I wondered that too but since the finder didn't give any info there's no way to know. I did message the buyer but haven't gotten a reply yet.

 

Since you worked at the post office I'm curious what you think about where the lost mail goes. I don't believe most of it is stolen. Is it all getting caught in machines and destroyed? What else could be happening? I always figure everything has to be somewhere. It doesn't just fall into a black hole.

 

If mail is damaged it is supposed to be bagged or sealed with tape. There’s the “we’re sorry” that goes with it. Most of that gets delivered. But a portion of the mail can’t be identified as to where it goes. That is sent to the mail recovery office in Atlanta, GA. They make every effort to identify where it goes.

They may have to open it and in a high number of cases, it can be identified by an invoice or a letter. It’s then mailed to them with a “sorry” letter.

But some mail just can’t be identified. That becomes property of the Postal Service. Basically the same as a damaged parcel. You file a claim and the postal service keeps all of it. They won’t pay for the 1 damaged cup or saucer. They pay the claim but keep everything in the box. It’s then sold to help recover the loses. No sale, it becomes donated or trashed.

 

Nice story. There is still good in this wild world.