If you recieve a letter addressed to somone else..

If I handed it back to australia post what would they do with it?

It looks like a personal letter - handwritten on the envelope and it's a very fat one as though it has pages and pages of writing.

I don't want to hand it back if they are just going to throw it out - I'd imagine they'd get heaps of these kinds of things.

Should I open it and see if there's an address to return it to? I feel a bit snoopy... lol

Illegal?! Really?! I never heard that before!

I keep looking at it and imagining its something really important. Although important news usually happens over the phone I would've thought . Lol

It's definitely our address - but I hadn't thought of white pages, I'll do that!

Yes, it is illegal to tamper with somebody else's mail. As another poster said, you can write on the front "not at this address" and drop it back to the post office. Provided it has a sender's address, it will be returned to them.

Aus post has a 'dead letter office' where all mail that is undeliverable goes. They are the ones who open it and try and reunited it with it rightful owner grin

Oh snoopy saves the day!! lol

I called all 7 of the people listed in the phone book with that last name, and one of them knew the man and redirected me to try the next town in my search for the phone number.

Missing man found! He was very thankful for my efforts. lol

Now I feel like a regular sleuth. haha

Aus post has a 'dead letter office' where all mail that is undeliverable goes. They are the ones who open it and try and reunited it with it rightful owner grin

I didn't know that either! Well there you go, I've learned two things today!

I've opened them before and done some sluething to find the person. They have all been very thankful. Especially if it looked like a wedding invite...

I've opened them before and done some sluething to find the person. They have all been very thankful. Especially if it looked like a wedding invite...

That's great to know about the 'dead letter' department. I would find it hard to trust that they would actually do the right thing though!

I have to admit if there is no return address, I have opened up the letters on a couple of occasions - in two cases they looked like (and were) wedding invites and the bride was happy in both cases that I had. I do agree that it is not usually the right thing to do though (DH and I don't even open each other's mail).

Today I got a letter from my ultrasound clinic (a private, otherwise very well-run place) that was the results from somebody else's scan! It was horrible! It was addressed to me, and they had accidentally sent the follow-up report that was supposed to go to this other lady's GP. I called them to let them know and they didn't seem too fussed... I am thinking now somebody else random has my results and personal details. Not really acceptable.

Reminds me of when I got my free Huggies 30x30cm print (from the newborn nappy promo) and instead of a picture of DD I got a picture of somebody's freaky cat on their couch, red eye and all bah ha! Which means some cat lady got a beautiful picture of a random baby (she was probs more disappointed than me)!!

ps. Most importantly, well done on your stealth tracking skills!

No stress Maru, the letter remains unopened. smile