How does a letter that was supposed to be delivered to an address in Wisconsin end up in Tennessee?
That’s the question McMinnville resident Allen Hitchcock is asking after such a letter was delivered to his home.
“It was sent from a bank in Wisconsin and was supposed to be going to man who lives in Wisconsin, yet it wound up in my box on Indian Mound Drive,” said Hitchcock. “There is nothing in the address that’s the same as mine. I don’t see how this happened.”
Postal officials say mail that’s delivered to the wrong state and ZIP code is extremely rare. While you might occasionally get a letter addressed to your neighbor, it’s unusual for a letter to wander three states from its destination.
Today’s mail is read and sorted entirely by computer. Somehow in the scanning process, the letter got sorted with mail heading to the 37110 ZIP code and mixed with Hitchcock’s mail.
By the time mail arrives in McMinnville, it’s been completely sorted by address and is in the order it will be delivered by the mail carrier, according to McMinnville postmaster Brent Nunley. The mail carrier doesn’t do any sorting.