# Is throwing away someone else's mail a crime? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640 "2014-03-02T00:05:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640/21 "2014-03-04T03:45:18Z")
Columbia is in Maryland. Not as high a coke medium of exchange community as Colombia. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640/22 "2014-03-04T06:35:48Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Columbia is in Maryland. Not as high a coke medium of exchange community as Colombia. Never underestimate the ability of the Teeming Millions to misspell proper nouns. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640/23 "2014-03-04T10:29:48Z")
The law about mail in the UK is far less draconian. The biggest sanction the PO can impose, is to stop delivering your mail. We get it right through the door too, even if you live on the 23rd floor. As far as I know there is nothing specific to deal with misdirected, or misaddressed mail. I think it’s left to common sense, except when something gets stolen - in which case it is a matter for the police. If I move, I can pay them to redirect my mail for a period. £20 for three months. That is per surname, so if Mr Smith lives with Miss Jones, they pay twice. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640/24 "2014-03-04T19:00:36Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Look: They **KNOW** that neither Tom, Dick nor Harriet lives there now. They just deliver it because they don’t want to deal with it, (and of course they’re obligated to do so). Effectively they’re passing the buck to you. Meanwhile neither Tom, Dick nor Harriet has bothered to inform those senders of important matters of their new address, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, those senders could easily find out the new address, because if Pottery Barn can track me down after I’ve moved five times (and tried to evade them) to send me their friggin’ catalog (from which I’ve never ordered a thing in my life), then those important senders could do so as well. How the heck would the USPS know that Tom, Dick and Harriet don’t live here? there? My parents spend 6 months a year living with us, and have their mail directed to my house. We’ve got a friend that’s been living with us for the last 4 months, and he gets mail to the house. So there are 5 current names associated with my address. To make it more fun, while we’ve owned the house for 6 years, and was empty for 2 before that, we still get lots of mail for the previous residents, under at least 6 different name, one church (the previous owner was a church) and a number of committees and groups that were related to the church. Probably 20% of our mail is for a previous resident or owner. With all that, there is no way I expect the postal carrier to know which addresses live here, which ones used to live here, which ones never lived here, etc. Thanks, but I’ll take responsibility to make sure that I claim the right mail, rather than assume that someone at the post office can keep track of all of it. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640/25 "2014-03-05T00:15:43Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Columbia is in Maryland. Not as high a coke medium of exchange community as Colombia. Nitpick: [Columbia is a federal district, not part of any state.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_columbia) ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640/26 "2014-03-05T07:25:58Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > How the heck would the USPS know that Tom, Dick and Harriet don’t live here? there? Because you keep returning the mail that’s sent there addressed to them, of course. That’s the whole premise of this thread. They’re not idiots. My carrier had even changed written my name inside the box when I moved in, having taken out the old one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-throwing-away-someone-elses-mail-a-crime/682640.md?page=1)