I Thought Someone Must Have Fallen Asleep on the Job, but it Worked Out
By Marsha
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
Midland, Michigan
April 29, 2017 10:38am CST
I'm waiting on a check from a customer and at first though maybe I got it. But, no. Not only was the letter not addressed to anyone living here, it also never even made it to the right street, city, nor state. Now that's bad.
This envelope is addressed to someone in Montgomery, Alabama and somehow showed up in my mailbox in Michigan. It's from a company that deals with IRA's and investments. I hope it's not an awaited check.
I'm sure many of us have received our neighbor's mail before or they've received our, but this takes the cake.
Well, I found out that it did belong on my street after all. Someone at the post office had written some numbers on the envelop but they didn't match the numbers on the letter. I didn't give those numbers much thought because of that. Come to find out it's my next door neighbor after all. Today I saw the mail lady had walked through already but that she was still somewhere on my street, so I hunted her down and showed her. She pointed at the house it belonged to. Had she written a street down too I could have walked it over there as I'd have understood.
So, no one fell asleep on the job after all.
8 people like this
9 responses
@PatZAnthony (14749)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
29 Apr 17
That is really odd! How can the 'scanner' read the wrong zip code like that? Hmmmm, maybe it was stuck to another pieced of mail and slipped through @MarshaMusselman
2 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
29 Apr 17
Maybe. I don't know how it could happen. It didn't seem stuck to the one above it, but that would make better sense. Someone wrote a four digit number on the envelop, but why I don't know. They wrote 2215. Our address is 2211, so maybe that is partly why it came here, but why they wrote it there beats me.
You know when you respond you don't need to mention the person too? You could just put my first name alone, if you'd like, Pat. Like that.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
My post is edited to reflect that it was a neighbor after all. I found the carrier and gave it to her and found out.
@LadyDuck (502812)
• Italy
2 May 17
@MarshaMusselman So the mail is redirected to his new address, this makes more sense.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
@LadyDuck Yes, except it wasn't the clearest in it's redirection as it didn't have any sticker to reflect that. It only had the numbers for the address. Had it had the street name I would have figured it out myself.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
It wasn't a mistake after all. It's a new neighbor that we've not met yet that moved here this year.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
29 Apr 17
Yes, I can't just call the person and take it over there. I hope it's not something he needed a few days ago already.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
29 Apr 17
@amadeo I intend to get it back into the mail and then on Monday I'm calling the sender to let them know too. That way if the person has been looking for it they can decide whether to send it again and void the one I got or what.
@Marilynda1225 (91169)
• United States
29 Apr 17
Certainly looks like a big mixup and how it wound up at your house and not in Alabama is a mystery.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
29 Apr 17
Even if most of it's done by machine you'd think someone would glance at it. But, I did take a test in the twenty years ago to be a postal carrier but in a car. I didn't take the position for certain reasons, but the carrier doesn't sort the mail, I don't think. It's already sorted and they are separated per address. If that letter were at the top of the pile she should have noticed it, but it was the last one on the bottom.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
I found out that it was a neighbor after all. I edited my post to reflect this and explain more of it there. No sense in repeating myself to everyone here that replied already.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
That's what we thought too, but I found out after talking to the carrier yesterday that it is one of our new neighbors in the area. I always thought they'd attach a change of address sticker to any mail with new addresses, but they only put the street number, not the street itself or I could have figured it out better. 
1 person likes this
@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
2 May 17
@MarshaMusselman oh that's so strange! They still use change of address stickers around here.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
29 Apr 17
They aren't open on Saturdays, or at least they weren't when I got my mail today. I'm planning on putting it back into the mail. Maybe I'll take it to the po, or I'll put a note on it for the carrier, not sure yet. I also plan on calling the sender and letting them know the person that it was going to in case it was a check that was needed.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
@Gabugs I found out yesterday that it was to a new neighbor in the area. Had they put the street name down too I would have realized it, but they only wrote the numbers which I thought was odd as it didn't match the envelope.
1 person likes this
@Gabugs (1895)
• United States
30 Apr 17
@MarshaMusselman That indeed is a good idea.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
Yes, I couldn't believe it. I was either going to take the letter to the post office or find my mail lady. I almost missed her this am as she'd already delivered my mail but I knew she couldn't be too far away, so I went looking for her. I found her at the corner and found out that it did belong on my street after all.
Had someone written a street name along with the number part of the address I would have thought to look closer, but I missed it. She walked it over to the house it belonged to herself. I'm glad I didn't just put it back into the mail like I was going to do.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
29 Apr 17
Yes. I've never received one that far away before. Pat thinks maybe it got stuck on one above it which would make more sense.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
2 May 17
It ended up belonging to my neighbor after all.
