Can I get in trouble for throwing away someone else's mail if I've already tried to return it?

Question

I know it's a federal offense and all to throw away someone else's mail if it arrives in your mailbox. But, what if I've clearly written "Return to Sender; addressee does not live here", sent it back, and received the same mail a day or two later? At that point, the post office is just being lazy and not actually returning the mail to the original sender. I feel like I've done my duty to try and get the mail in the right hands. If I write "Return to Sender" and it still comes back to me, am I free to throw it away at that point? Like I said, I've done my job.

This has been happening for months. I complained to the postmaster, and was assured that the mail would get forwarded to the correct recipient in the future. Although the situation is better, I still get the previous resident's mail once or twice a month. And I almost always see the mail again after I've written "Return to Sender" and attempted to send it back.

If it comes back a second time, I throw it away. Can I get in trouble for that?

Answer 1

In my experience, the post office will just keep delivering the same piece of mail to the wrong address again and again.



I cross out the address with a sharpie in order to keep it from showing back up in my mailbox. On one occasion, the post office actually opened the envelope so they could get at the address and redeliver it to the wrong place. Now that's dedication.

Answer 2

Yes, you can get in trouble. And you never know when you're going to throw away something irreplaceable that they come looking for.



You probably just need to do a better job crossing out the current delivery address and making it clear the person isn't there. I'd use a nice black sharpie on the wrong delivery address, and a red pen to say return to sender. If it keeps coming back, just keep putting it in the mailbox. I personally would not want the risk of throwing it away on my head. It's the post office screwing up, not the intended recipient. But it's the intended recipient who's going to sue you over that irreplaceable item.

Answer 3

I have a solution. Get a plain white sticker and place it over the (your) address, without covering the previous resident's name. Then write "return to sender" on the envelope. This way, the mail is out of your hands and will not return.

Answer 4

It's kind of like that tag on the matress that says, "don not remove under penalty of federal law" which I tear off every chance I get. Read it if there's cash money in there it's yours throw the unimportant parts you've already read in the trash.



Can't count the number of times I tried to return mail and it just stayed there for weeks on my mail box before I finally threw it away. Put in a change of address and your cash won't be in my pocket.

Answer 5

Write on the envelope. Not at this address and put it in outgoing.

Answer 6

Interesting topic!

Answer 7

Did you try crossing out your address in black ink?

Answer 8

If you dont tell anybody who would know