Contents stolen from Letter

Raven Runner

I've being having problems with my post recently I got a letter in which someone sent me a little badge that you pin on your shirt very small it was sent in a normal size envelope but when I got it there was a small tear in the envelope and the badge wasn't there I presume stolen the badge didn't cost much but a similar thing happened to another person in the same address i'm staying but luckily they didn't have anything stolen but there was signs the envelope was tampered with, so I did a little test and posted a self addressed envelope with a small priceless item inside and I got the envelope minus the item, the stamp on the envelope wasn't stamped with the post office mark so i presume it didn't go to the post warehouse.
I live in a small area I know the postman he has a family it would be unfair to accuse one of his family members of taking anything I don't have anything to go on only intuition , maybe its policy to remove any items from letters that are not registered but it seems a bit strange but can anything be done? Cheers Thanks.

ABajaninCork

Have you reported the matter to An Post as well as the Gards? Tampering with the mail is a criminal matter and should be your first step.

Raven Runner

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Have you reported the matter to An Post as well as the Gards? Tampering with the mail is a criminal matter and should be your first step.

Cheers thanks

ABajaninCork

As a matter of interest, OP: Why did you put a 'priceless' item in the post as a test knowing it was likely to be stolen?

Raven Runner

ABajaninCork wrote: »

As a matter of interest, OP: Why did you put a 'priceless' item in the post as a test knowing it was likely to be stolen?

priceless was probably the wrong wording it was a row of staples which isn't worth much.

it could also have being torn by the mail sorter machine that they have who knows I'll try not to look for the bad reasons there might be a simple explanation

Honey-ec

ABajaninCork wrote: »

As a matter of interest, OP: Why did you put a 'priceless' item in the post as a test knowing it was likely to be stolen?

I'm guessing he meant "worthless".

Edit: Got there before me.

ABajaninCork

Yes, it did seem a bit odd. Hence the request for clarification...

ted1

how strong is the envelope. may the objects have pierced the envelope and fallen out.

Raven Runner

ted1 wrote: »

how strong is the envelope. may the objects have pierced the envelope and fallen out.

just your average thin envelope I've come to the conclusion that the machines the post office use to separate the letter caused the damage i assume it just got pushed out by the machine.

Raven Runner

Raven Runner wrote: »

I live in a small area I know the postman he has a family it would be unfair to accuse one of his family members of taking anything I don't have anything to go on only intuition , maybe its policy to remove any items from letters that are not registered but it seems a bit strange but can anything be done? Cheers Thanks.

A postman's family have absolutely nothing to do with the post, he doesn't keep it in his house. I know you've decided already that you no longer suspect him, but just in case you change your mind I'd like to say it would be incredibly inappropriate to accuse his family of tampering with post.

Raven Runner wrote: »

just your average thin envelope I've come to the conclusion that the machines the post office use to separate the letter caused the damage i assume it just got pushed out by the machine.

Did you put a 60c stamp on it? If so, it shouldn't have been thicker than 2mm, so a pin or a row of staples wouldn't have gotten through the sorter. Even with the right postage, you'd need to wrap up sharp things like that, the envelope probably wasn't up to the job of holding them on it's own.

Unfortunately many postal services (or I'd say probably all of them) are subject to a small amount of theft, but I don't think anyone's after badges and staples.

Stavro Mueller

You'd be surprised how easily envelopes can tear. I used to work in an office that got post of all shapes and sizes. Sometimes mail would get to us with the packaging in rag order or damaged so badly that An Post had had to patch it up. Personally if I was posting something like a little badge or even a row of staples, I wouldn't dream of putting it into a regular envelope. I'd be wrapping it in bubble wrap for starters and possibly doubling over the envelope for extra strength

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Anthing like pins should be sent wrapped and tape up and put in a small bubble-padded envelope. Bit late now I know.

EDIT - never mind, someone's pointed it out

kylith

there was a thread about stealing from the post in AH recently, there seems to be a bit of a rash of it going around, I've had a couple of ebay sellers refuse to deal with me (in a nice way) because they say they get too many reports of items going missing in the post.

My advice, and what I do myself, is to simply not send valuables through the post; if you must send money or goods send them through registered post. I never put money in birthday cards any more, and I don't seal the envelope so they don't have to rip it to see that there's no money.

Idle Passerby

Its the mail sorting machine. You're not supposed to put hard 3d objects into paper envelopes, the machine isn't built to accommodate sudden hard bulges in a flat paper envelope and the paper rips as it goes through. The same thing wouldn't happen with a padded envelope.