The U.S. Postal Service has its own unique kind of detectives.
They're the people who, using some imagination, perhaps a magnifying glass and making a few telephone calls, are often able to match people up with items that have become lost or separated from their mail.
"Our automated letter sorting equipment is some of the most sophisticated in the country, efficiently processing an average of seven to nine letters per second. Letters containing keys, coins, pens or other small objects will not only jam the machinery, but will damage the senders' letter and unfortunately may cause other letters to be damaged, too," said Thelxi Hauenstein, customer relations coordinator at the Salt Lake City Post Office.
Objects placed in letters not only can cause damage to postal sorting equipment but can result in delays in handling the mail. Sorting equipment was operating at almost lightning speed during a Deseret News visit at the huge postal facility. Five optical character readers (OCR) sort about 1 million letters a day at the post office, according to postal supervisor Denise Brownfield.
Letters travel through OCRs at 180 inches per second, said Mike Cackett, an electronics technician. If letters are too thick in sorters that accommodate regular letters then they jam the machine.
The Salt Lake facility, located at 1760 W. 2100 South, is the general mail sorting facility for much of Utah.
"We notice a lot of poorly prepared mail around the holidays, especially at Easter and Valentine's Day, when people send candy in envelopes," Hauenstein said.
When things become loose in the mail or inquiries are made by someone seeking to find or claim an item, Patti Traynor and Norma Mulkey, claims and inquiry clerks at the Salt Lake Post Office, are often involved. Hundreds of other workers are required for similar duties in other post offices around the country. An estimated 500 million pieces of mail flow through the U.S. Postal Service system every day.
Traynor, who has worked at the post office since 1986, says she receives items that become loose in the mail and are routed from many different areas. They may be items left in a lobby, at a postal clerk window or found by another customer. Many things are mistakenly placed in mail drop boxes.
"I would say that a very small number of items are damaged because of machinery or handling (by postal workers). The largest amount of damage is because of improper packaging. A good rule of thumb is: if the item you are sending is stronger than the package you have it in — it probably won't get there," Traynor said. Mailboxes are for matter bearing postage only.
While improper packaging of materials for delivery often results in items becoming separated from their containers, it isn't the only reason. People often put letters or other materials without U.S. postage in home mailboxes.
Recently, Mulkey was able to get a $30 gift certificate back to a Bountiful woman whose friend left the certificate in an unsealed envelope in her mailbox. The envelope, which had no postage, was marked only with the name "Pat," who called the post office after learning that the certificate had been left at her home.
Often, valuable items can't be returned to their owners without a lot of time and effort on the part of postal employees, who say they are anxious to do all they can to get the mail to its intended destination. Within the last year or so, an old photographic album wound up in the claims department.
Using her own ingenuity, Traynor used a a magnifying glass to more closely inspect the writing on a church marquee in one of the photos. The name of a family in the town was included on the marquee. Traynor determined that the photo had been taken in a small Iowa town. She called the town's postmaster, who recognized the family name.
When she was was sure that she had enough information, Traynor then mailed the photo album to the postmaster, who contacted a member of the family. The individual came to the post office, and the postmaster was able to return the album to its owner, Traynor said. It took "just a little bit of detective work and putting two and two together. An elderly woman in the family called me at work. She was just amazed" that the photo album ended up in a post office, Traynor added.
You can reach Douglas D. Palmer by e-mail at palmer@desnews.com.