Commentary: The mysteries of the U.S. Mail belong in a book

I’ve always loved a mystery, from the time I first read Nancy Drew as a little girl.

Less so when I am involved in the mystery.

As part of publishing a book, marketing is involved. I recently sent a dozen books out to various places, hoping the recipients would find value in the book for their venues.

A couple of weeks ago, I got back an empty envelope with “Return to sender. Attempted — not known. Unable to forward” on a bright yellow sticker at the bottom.

There was no damage to the envelope. I had used a nice envelope that made it easy to peel it open, if you don’t want to damage it, and someone had surely taken advantage of that and sealed it back up again.

It didn’t make me feel particularly good as a writer to think that my book might have been stolen.

This was a strange case. I had sent all the books Priority Mail. This one was destined (or not) for the OASIS Senior Citizens Center, less than a mile from where I live.

It’s more businesslike for it to arrive by mail, I thought.

I had taken the packages to the Corona del Mar post office, not much farther from me. So, that’s where I started my search for what had gone wrong.

Betty, the postmaster, told me that a package doesn’t go from the post office directly to a nearby address. From Corona del Mar, my book had gone to the Newport Beach post office on Camelback Street, and from there to Santa Ana, before it was sorted for delivery back into my neck of the woods.

She ran the tracking number and said, “That’s strange.”

More strange stuff!

“This package shows as ‘Out for delivery.’ It doesn’t show that it was delivered back to you at all.”

To continue the search for answers, I had to go to the Camelback post office.

I arrived with an increasing collection of documents: the empty envelope, the receipt for priority mail, and the tracking information Betty had given me.

At Camelback, Kathy explained the process of from here to there to there to there again.

She provided me with a form to fill out to initiate a claim for repayment of postage. And, on the spot, she refunded the $5.95 I had paid!

While there, I also filled out a form initiating a search, describing the book by size and cover and colors, etc. Kathy suggested I wait a week before filling out the claim, another form she gave me, as perhaps the book would be found in Santa Ana. If not, I could seek repayment for the book.

I waited more than a week as a holiday had intervened. The book did not show up. I did not hear from the Santa Ana post office.

I filled out the claim form. At the top of it, Kathy had circled, in red, information about filing the form online. I looked at my file, which now included the envelope, the postage receipt, the tracking information, a picture of the book copied from Amazon.com, which showed the price, and from barnesandnoble.com for good measure, and the claim form.

I started the process to file the claim online. First I had to fill out my user name and my password. Oh, dear. I’d felt good about recording the password, but user name?

The heck with that I thought. I will take this to the Camelback post office.

And thankfully, Kathy took charge of it all.

I wonder how many stops the package of documents will make before a check is sent to me.

Sorry to report, that’s as far as Nancy got with solving this case. What became of the book will likely remain a mystery. And, possibly, what happened to the check.

LIZ SWIERTZ NEWMAN lives in Corona del Mar.