The Perils Of Not Sending USPS First Class

Recently, a dear friend of mine sadly lost her mother.

I set to work right away to make her a rememberance gift (wire art heart) along with a watercolor card expressing my sympathy and condolences.

I bundled it up, wrapped it in bubble wrap, packaged it in a yellow mailing envelope, addressed it to my friend at her Florida address.

JP took it to the post office for me on August 24th and they collectively decided not to send it first class so it wouldn't be run through the mail processing machines, risking damage.

I definitely should have put it in a box instead of an envelope but never in a million did I think it would be a big deal.

Until it turned into a big deal.

When it had not arrived to her two weeks later and the tracking information for it showed nothing, I went to the post office and had them look into it.  

Here is what they said:

Resigning myself to it being out of my control, my friend and I would each periodically check the tracking which said nothing other than "your package is running late but is still on track for delivery".

Then on 9/6 it showed movement! The package was at the USPS Regional Facility in Merrifield, VA. Terrific, I thought, it's moving south finally on its way to Florida.

Except, no.

On 9/7 it arrived at the Mid New York Distribution Center, which I guess is somewhere in mid New York 😀

Somehow the package had traveled north.  Its journey now included lower Delaware to Virginia to New York.  

You know how when you look into booking a flight to somewhere and there's a stop along the way that completely does not make sense?  Like, you're going to Florida from Philadelphia but there's a stopover in Detroit? Do mail packages have layovers similar to passenger airlines?  

But wait...would you believe that on 9/9 it showed up in New Castle, Delaware, which is one hour or so north of my house?

So lower Delaware to Virginia to New York to New Castle, DE.

Then on 9/10 it went to the Wilmington, Delaware Distribution Center, also just over an hour north from my house.

But best of all is that today, 9/11, it arrived at the USPS Facility in...Harrington, Delaware, which is my local post office. 

Tracking now is showing that it's out for delivery...to my house.

17 days after mailing it and it has come full circle, somehow returning to me instead of being delivered to my friend in Florida.  I can't wait to see what the package says when it gets here.

I'm also a little afraid to see what condition it's going to be in.

Assuming that it will be undamaged, what do I do next?  Take my chances again and mail it in a box this time, first class, and see where it winds up this time?  UPS? FedEx? DHL?

......

Here is the package and apparently the reason why it circled the East Coast for 17 days: 

I've sent tons of stuff addressed like this in the past with no issues.  Also, if it isn't acceptable to do this, why didn't the post office lady flag it when JP brought it in?

Whatever!