Mr. Jaggers wrote:
I have commented on this phenomenon before, as it applied to coin shipments
that have gone astray on their way to me. I received a letter (not
coin-related, thank goodness!), originally sent from a post office 15 miles
away, on 10-17-07, but which arrived only today, stamped with an explanation
in bright red of where it has been all this time:

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...sedlyEmpty.jpg

I'm trying to understand how this can happen, but fail every time I try.
This was not mailed in an outdoor mailbox, or even in a slot somewhere, but
carried to the post office in a company's mail crate. Doesn't anyone ever
look at this "equipment" to verify that it is indeed empty? I mean, for a
period of over four months it escaped detection?

James

I was in the mailing business for most of my life and have found that mail you speak of.

Mail is transported from place to place in bags, trays, boxes, and tubs. when the postal people empty this "equipment" sometimes things just don't
fall out. They get in a hurry and don't look in the bottom of the bag. The old gray plastic trays had a space of about 1" between the bottom of one
tray and the top of the bottom of the tray under it. a nice hiddy hole for mail that was in trays that were not full.

One May I found one of these trays that never got to the canceling machine from the return addresses I could tell they were mailed in Albuquerque, I
live in Phoenix. Guess what tax returns. I requested that the mail get the proper endorsement but who knows.

Yes it does happen and often enough that the stamps are used every day in a large post office.

George


--
The real cause of crime is not a poverty of resources but a poverty of values.

http://www.johnlocke.org/agenda2004/crimepunisment.htm