You’re mindlessly opening a stack of bills and then—whoops—you realize you’ve opened an envelope addressed to a neighbor. Your first thought may be too worry that you’ll get in trouble with the law or your neighbor. Opening someone else’s mail can be a crime, but this mistake happens all the time. We’ll explain what to do if you accidentally open your neighbor’s mail or the mail of someone who used to live in your home.
Is Opening Someone Else’s Mail Illegal?
Opening someone else’s mail intentionally is a federal crime with serious consequences. But if you opened someone’s mail by accident, don’t panic. The law says that it’s a crime to open mail with the intention of obstructing the mail or prying into someone else’s business. This doesn’t apply to accidentally opening an envelope. If a mail carrier mistakenly delivered someone else’s mail to your house, you have a good explanation for what happened.
Don’t let that be an excuse to start snooping and reading your neighbor’s mail. Stop as soon as you realize your error, reseal the envelope, and try to be more careful in the future.
What Should You Do?
Misdelivered Mail
Ideally, you should check addresses on all envelopes before you open them. If you don’t see your name, mark the envelope with “Return to sender” or “Wrong address” and place it back in your mailbox or drop it in a postal box. If you accidentally opened the envelope, tape it closed first.
Of course, if the mail belongs to your next-door neighbor and you’re on good terms, it’s nice to do them a favor and drop it in their mailbox. If you made the mistake of opening their mail, we suggest telling your neighbor first. But if you don’t know the recipient, it’s safer to simply return the mail and let the postal service deal with it.
Previous Residents
What if the street address is correct, but the mail is addressed to a previous resident? In this case, try writing both “Return to sender” and “Not at this address” on the envelope, then putting it back in the mail. This doesn’t always lead to companies updating mailing lists, but it may help.
If you repeatedly receive mail for a former resident, see if you can catch your regular mail carrier and talk with them. You can also stop at the local post office and ask them to put a note on your address record.
Misdelivered Packages
If the US Postal Service mistakenly delivers a package to your address, handle it the same way as you would mail. Don’t take anything out of the package—just tape it back up and put a note indicating it was delivered to the wrong address. You may have to take it directly to the post office if your usual mail carrier doesn’t handle packages.
But what about packages delivered by a driver from Amazon or UPS? In that case, you’ll need to contact that delivery service and ask them to retrieve the package.
Can You Throw Out Junk Mail?
If you’re getting flyers, coupons, political ads, and catalogs for someone else, it’s hard to imagine anyone is missing them. Still, do not throw out any mail. Destroying someone else’s mail is a crime. Return junk mail in the same way you would any other mail.
Can I Ever Open Someone’s Mail?
Yes, there is one circumstance when you can open someone else’s mail. If the recipient gives you permission, you are in the clear. Let’s say you call a former roommate, for instance, and they ask you to open their mail to see if it’s worth forwarding. You received consent and can open the mail based on their request.
Read the original article on Southern Living
