Living in an apartment complex, I get other people’s mail all the time. Typically from the outside of the envelopes I can tell if it is a credit card application, appeal for a donation, or junk mail. I receive this type of mail weekly for the previous two to three people who lived in my unit before me. (This still is hard to believe considering the post office once stopped delivering my mail until I submitted this card with my name, yet they still send me other people’s mail – very strange). I had never opened another person’s mail until yesterday; I usually put it into the outgoing mail box or in the case of junk mail, I recycle it.

Yesterday I was performing some car spring cleaning. When going through the center console I found something peculiar. It was a Christmas card that I had intended to put back in the mail. I then remembered the origin of this envelope. This was the first letter that had an actual return address on it. It was addressed to Person X from Persons X (X signifying the same last name). So instead of simply throwing it away or putting it back into the outgoing mail, I decided in December I was going to send it back with a note, telling the senders (seemingly Person X’s family), that I had been living in the apartment unit since July, and Person X had moved out. I placed the letter in my console for safe keeping and it stayed there until yesterday.

Impulsively, I decided to open the letter to see if it was even worth my time and energy to send it back. Low and behold, I open the letter and find a heartwarming Christmas card. Persons X had not heard from Person X in a long time and wished to see her again. I was taken aback for a second feeling pretty concerned for Person X. Was she in some sort of trouble? I hope that her family had heard from her since December 24th (the date the letter was post marked).

There was also $50 cash inside the card. Not for a second did I think about keeping the money. While the 50 bucks had been hidden in my car for 4 months, the money was never mine. Seeing the money motivated me to take action. I wrote out a letter explaining what I had initially intended, that Person X had moved, and I never knew her. I expressed my hope that they had heard from her, put their card with the money inside into my envelope and sent in back. See: http://goo.gl/cSAZB for better ways to send money through the mail.