So, let’s say I want to travel somewhere, but I don’t want to mess around with the hassels of driving a car, or taking public transportation. Is getting someone to put me in a container of some kind, and mailing me a possibility in even the remotest sense?
I assume there is probably something in Federal Postal Restrictions prohibiting this type of activity, and with the heightened security in our country and around the world, it wouldn’t surprise me to find it nearly impossible to get away with this and not get caught.
But the idea just fascinates me. I would assume we’re talking a lot of postage, and somehow, there would have to be airholes…
Well, in 1914, a little girl named Charlotte May Pierstorff was mailed 100 miles to Lewiston, Idaho. She was listed as a 48 pound baby chick and mailed to her grandma, and was delivered by a clerk. There’s a book about it, Mailing May, but I remembered it from an older book called Amazing True Stories.
I’m guessing restrictions have increased since then.
There was an incident several years ago at an overseas US military base where the GI got “too friendly” with a local girl. The girl’s family did not want marriage or any monetary payment, nor legal means. They wanted him dead.
There was no way he could leave the base and out of the country by normal means. He was sealed into an oversize postal bag and shipped out via official military post on the next available transport. He was made to endure the entire trans-Europe/Atlantic flights locked in the bag.
It wasn’t me and I don’t know who he was. I do know who affixed the stamps and did all the postal paperwork, though.
Judging by the poor shape of many of the packages that I’ve received, I wouldn’t recommend shipping yourself surreptitiously. Even if you marked your box with warnings, I still wouldn’t do it.
My company often ships PCs in properly padded boxes. On at least two occasions, the boxes haves arrived with large holes through the box, padding, and into the computer case. Presumably, the holes were caused by one of the forks of a forklift.
Conclusion: Don’t ship yourself and become a Waldo Jeffers!
Basic story freighters wanted 15c a brick (80,000 bricks) from brick kiln to building site and by second zone postage 10 bricks a package they had them freighted for less than half price. 1886 I am sure the rules have changed somehwat since then.
At least some other living animals than chicks can be mailed. I’m an amateur beekeeper and routinely get replacement queen bees delivered to me by priority mail. (Usually when I get an order of queens, the post office calls me at 5:30 a.m. and tells me to get down there quick.)
