Postal ping pong: Letter addressed to woman in Alabama gets sent to man in Wyoming

A greeting card meant for Alabama resident Lisa Putnam instead traveled much farther, landing in the mailbox of former state legislator Roger Huckfeldt in Torrington, Wyoming. It was a head-scratcher for Huckfeldt, who told Cowboy State Daily that the name and address on the envelope were both clear and legible. Yet it still took a month to mistakenly land in his mailbox more than 1,250 miles from where it was supposed to be delivered.

“Why didn’t the carrier notice?” he wondered. “It was a different color than any other mail, and it was the only letter delivered that day.” The card was sent on March 6 from somewhere in Alabama, sealed in a blue Hallmark envelope addressed to Lisa Putnam and family in Lexington, Alabama. Huckfeldt wrote a message on the back of the letter and returned it to his mailbox.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman James Boxrud explained that despite having a clear address, high-speed machines now do most of the sorting. “Based on the photos provided, it appears an incorrect barcode was applied during initial processing, which resulted in the piece of mail being misdirected,” he said. “Most likely it was stuck to another mail piece. The Postal Service uses high-speed automated sorting technology to read handwritten addresses. Occasionally, if a machine misinterprets a digit in a ZIP code, it applies a barcode for the incorrect destination.”

Once the barcode is printed, that becomes the letter’s destiny, even if the barcode is completely wrong. Subsequent machines will route the letter automatically based on the code. “This process is entirely automated,” Boxrud said. “A human typically does not sort the piece again until it reaches the local carrier for final delivery.” He recommended that misdirected mail be returned to the local post office or handed to an individual’s carrier rather than just dropped back in the mailbox, allowing postal workers to obscure the incorrect barcode and resort it correctly.

Boxrud characterized this instance as rare, saying the Postal Service processes hundreds of millions of pieces of mail daily with “an extremely high accuracy rate.” Huckfeldt disagrees. It’s not the first time misdirected mail has landed in his box. He said misdirected mail happens often enough now that he’s learned to sort his mail at the box so he can put back the letters that don’t belong to him. Huckfeldt also has neighbors who say they’re sometimes waiting six months to receive mail they know was supposed to be delivered to them.

Huckfeldt has also been the victim of misdelivered mail, including a bill payment that didn’t go anywhere close to where it was supposed to go. “I got a late notice back that I hadn’t paid my bill,” he said. “And gosh, I’m sure I had sent it, but the check hadn’t been canceled.” Eventually, he received a letter from someone in Wisconsin who had received Huckfeldt’s bill payment instead of the intended recipient in Wyoming. “He says, ‘They delivered this to my address, and I want to make sure you get it back, because it looks like it was important,'” Huckfeldt said.

There may be an explanation beyond automation errors. Lexington is located in Lauderdale County in North Alabama, where residents have reported significant mail delays, characterized by long wait times, lost or damaged items, and opened or misdirected mail. U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, has called out USPS for mail delivery problems across North Alabama, blaming them on USPS’s Delivering for America Plan.

The USPS had a similar consolidation plan in Wyoming that would have removed both Cheyenne and Casper’s large mail processing capabilities, placing that function in Denver and Billings respectively. After a huge outcry, which included Wyoming’s congressional delegation, USPS said it would walk some of the plan back in Wyoming. Secretary of State Chuck Gray said, “This troubling incident is another example of why I’ve been so vocal about the need for Wyoming mail to continue to be processed in Wyoming. Wyoming mail should be processed in Wyoming — period.”

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said she’s continued to work on rural mail issues. “I’ve always said that everyone is looking for a reason to head to the Cowboy State, and it looks like that even applies to mail from Alabama,” she said. “I’ve worked closely with the Trump administration to address some of the issues with our mail processing to ensure residents in rural states like Wyoming get their mail in a timely manner.” U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman said she continues to lead a bipartisan crusade with multiple pieces of legislation to increase transparency, safeguard rural mail access, and keep the Postal Service from eliminating services for rural communities.