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Sometimes I get first class mail addressed to other people's names, at my address. I know I can't legally open it, or deliberately destroy it by putting it in the trash or shredding it. I know I could write "not at this address" on it and put it back into the mail system as outgoing mail.

Can I, while standing in front of my mailbox, simply stop holding it?

It would fall to the ground somewhere near my mailbox. It would not be immediately destroyed, and it would (weather permitting) be right there the next time the mail carrier comes by, and they would have an opportunity to see this wayward piece of mail, and pick it up, and deliver it to the person it is addressed to.

If it happened to rain before the mail carrier came, the mail might be damaged. And if it became windy it might be blown elsewhere; if it did not blow into the path of a mail carrier before it weathered into oblivion it could be destroyed. But it seems unusual to blame me for the actions of the weather on other people's stuff, unless I have some kind of obligation to care for it (and not merely no right to destroy it).

Do I have a positive legal obligation to act to get this mail to the addressee? Or can I decide to stop being involved in the life of this piece of first class mail as soon as I see it is not mine?

Does the answer depend on how long I can expect the mail to survive exposure to the elements, or how likely it is to still be there for the carrier to see the next time they come by?

I am particularly interested in my responsibilities r.e. protecting the mail from the elements or bringing it to the attention of the carrier, rather than just making sure it was available to them when I left it. If I drop it on the ground in a way that I know or ought to know will destroy it, that would be the same as just trashing it, which isn't allowed.

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    You're playing word games. Why do you think "simply stop holding it" is not immediately or potentially destroying it?
    – BlueDogRanch
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:04
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    Law is word games.
    – bdb484
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:07
  • @BlueDogRanch It is absolutely potentially destroying it. If I got an answer that said that I would be breaking the law if, because I dropped it, the mail were in fact destroyed, that would be a great answer.
    – interfect
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:10
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    "it seems unusual to blame me for the actions of the weather on other people's stuff..." No, it seems unusual to try to escape blame when your willfull action exposes it to the weather.
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Jan 1 at 1:22
  • @MichaelHall Hence the caveat. If someone leaves their non-mail item in my garage without my permission and I take it out, and it sits for weeks in my yard and eventually breaks, that is presumably legally distinct from the case where I take a hammer to it. But with mail I might have some kind of extended obligation to care for it, which the question is about.
    – interfect
    Commented Jan 2 at 14:56

1 Answer 1

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You are obligated to not destroy it or stop it from being delivered

Taking the mail not for you and dropping it to the ground is most likely running afoul of both Obstruction of mails generally and Obstruction of mail service.:

Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

The mail carrier has to pick up the strewn-around letters. That is not planned for, so you retard his passing along his route, making it obstruction.

Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

You are not the recipient and so it has not been delivered to the person to whom it is directed and Mail from the ground will not be picked up for delivery. Further, by not making sure the Post picks it up in non-destroyed fashion and taking it from the authorized depository (Mailbox) to drop it on the ground - which is most certainy not an authorized depository, you are acting in a manner that is designed to obstruct the correspondence.

Further, putting the mail on the ground is wilfully or maliciously defacing it, and illegal:

Whoever willfully or maliciously injures, tears down or destroys any letter box or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any mail route, or breaks open the same or willfully or maliciously injures, defaces or destroys any mail deposited therein, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

In a more lenient look, you might be just deserting the mail on the ground before the box where you took it from - By picking up the mail you put yourself in charge of the mail and thus have to make sure it is delivered to at least the post office:

Whoever, having taken charge of any mail, voluntarily quits or deserts the same before he has delivered it into the post office at the termination of the route, or to some known mail carrier, messenger, agent, or other employee in the Postal Service authorized to receive the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

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  • Can you explain your reasoning here? I don't think I have "design to obstruct the correspondence", or that leaving a thing on the ground in plain view "opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys" it, especially if the weather ends up being fine for several days and the mail is in fact available and visible to the carrier the next few times they come by. Do you mean that I risk committing that offence if the mail is in fact destroyed? Or is dropping the mail one of the prohibited actions in a way I am not seeing?
    – interfect
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:16
  • @interfect You make sure the mail is not deliverd, thus it is obstruction. The post is not obligated to pick up mail from the ground. You took it out of the authorized delivery place.
    – Trish
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:19
  • OK, so "obstructing" the correspondence is meant to be interpreted broadly, as not just "doing something that would stop a reasonably determined person from finding and delivering it" but as "doing something that would stop delivery assuming the postal system follows its particular mechanical procedures and shows no initiative". And so I also can't leave it on the floor of the post office or ship it to the postmaster general because those would "obstruct" its delivery, since the post office doesn't accept mail that way. Do you have a reference to support this interpretation of obstruction?
    – interfect
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:33
  • @interfect Postal service is assumed to do nothing on its own - even "how and when to look for the real recipient" is written down in a regulation. Postal service, for all intents and purposes is a machine.
    – Trish
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:39
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    Have some People V Reid: It is obstruction of correspondence to put any non-mailable item in the post box! Obstruction of corresponcence is very wide.
    – Trish
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 16:48

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