Snail mail has its glitches that could lead to a failed delivery. Data solutions provider Runner cites some of the reasons traditional letters become undeliverable and are returned to sender.
Topping the list is an invalid address. With a wrong house or building number or street name, a letter will get nowhere but returned to the post office and its sender.
Even with a correct address, a letter can still be undelivered if it is refused to be received by the person it is addressed to or if there was nobody there. The mailman has no choice but to take it back.
There’s another unusual reason why a mailed letter doesn’t reach its recipient.
Tizi Hodson, 70, from Gedney Hill, Lincolnshire, England recently found out that a letter can get literally stuck in the post office.
Hodson was both surprised and amused seeing her job application letter in her mailbox.
“I always wondered why I never heard back about the job. Now I know why,” said Hodson, BBC reports.
She remembered writing the application letter herself, excited and hopeful of getting her dream job.
“Every day I looked for my post but there was nothing there and I was so disappointed because I really, really wanted to be a stunt rider on a motorcycle,” according to Hodson.
At the top of the returned letter was a handwritten note explaining why it was not delivered, according to BBC.
“Late delivery by Staines Post Office. Found behind a draw [sic]. Only about 50 years late.”
Hodson’s job application letter sent in January 1976 had been stuck behind a post office drawer all those years. Nevertheless, Hodson was able to take on jobs as exciting as being a stunt rider. She worked as a snake handler, horse whisperer, aerobatic pilot, and flying instructor in Africa.
As incredible as getting her undelivered letter back after 50 years was how it even found its way to her.
“How they found me when I’ve moved house 50-odd times, and even moved countries four or five times, is a mystery,” she said, according to BBC.