# USPS stealing gift cards?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-stealing-gift-cards/653504>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 21, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-stealing-gift-cards/653504 "2013-03-21T00:24:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-stealing-gift-cards/653504/21 "2013-03-22T15:16:47Z")

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A question regarding my post:

FedEx tracking shows that my book was handed off to the local post office for delivery. The Post Office says they have no record of it. So assuming malfeasance, and not a handling error, where would the theft have occurred? A Postal employee receives the box from FedEx, thinks, ‘Hey, this is coming from a _book seller!_ I don’t know what it is, but I _want_ it!’, and does not enter it into the USPS tracking system?

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-stealing-gift-cards/653504/22 "2013-03-22T15:25:12Z")

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> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> A few weeks ago I ordered an OOP book.

> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> A question regarding my post:
> 
> FedEx tracking shows that my book was handed off to the local post office for delivery. The Post Office says they have no record of it. So assuming malfeasance, and not a handling error, where would the theft have occurred? A Postal employee receives the box from FedEx, thinks, ‘Hey, this is coming from a _book seller!_ I don’t know what it is, but I _want_ it!’, and does not enter it into the USPS tracking system?

Maybe the book never got instantiated.

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**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-stealing-gift-cards/653504/23 "2013-03-22T18:03:48Z")

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During high school and my first years of college, I got part time work at a small postal sorting facility in West Los Angeles filling in when the regular postal people took vacations during the summer and around Christmas time. This was in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While I never witnessed outright theft of mail, I certainly saw people slitting plastic envelopes to check out Playboys and other adult magazines in the days before porn was easily and cheaply acquired. Some of those magazines may never have made it to their final destinations.

One of the other temps when I was there was arrested when he was caught printing himself out hundreds of express mail postage stamps that I assume he planned to resell, but that was the only major incident I remember.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-stealing-gift-cards/653504/24 "2013-03-23T05:04:20Z")

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> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Maybe the book never got instantiated.

😃 Nice!

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