Mail Fail

(I start getting mail at my address for someone who doesn’t live there. I live in a two-level house, so I check with my downstairs neighbor, and it isn’t theirs. So, I simply mark it as “Return to Sender, Wrong Address,” and stick it back in the mailbox. Then, one afternoon about a week later, someone bangs on my door. I answer and see a disheveled man.)

Man: “Give me my mail.”

Me: “Are you [Name From Mail]?”

Man: “Yeah, now give me my mail.”

Me: “I don’t have any today. I sent it all back as having the wrong address.”

Man: “It isn’t!”

(I am a little confused at that.)

Me: “It did. It has this address, and I’m the only one who lives here.”

Man: “You can’t send it back! How am I supposed to get it?!”

Me: “If you give them your actual address, they will probably resend it. I–”

Man: “I’m homeless. This is my address!”

Me: “No, it…”

(I realize at that point that he is just trying to use my address for his own mail. I am not sure if that is legal or not, and regardless, I don’t want him to be going through my mail for his, anyway.)

Me: “You can’t do that. You can get a box at the post office if you don’t have an address, I think, and they will–”

Man: “I’m using this address!”

(At that point, he started stepping forward into my personal space, so I jumped back, and I ended up slamming the door on him. He started pounding and swearing through the door, so I called the police. It was loud enough that the lady on the other end could hear him pounding and shouting, and she promised to send officers out. By the time they got here, he had started going around and rattling my windows and had gotten into a shouting match with my downstairs neighbor. He took off running when they showed up, but they didn’t even try to chase him. They just took my statement and told me to call back if I had any more problems. He never showed up again, but I did keep getting mail with his name on it for a few months afterward, and I kept sending it all back with “Return to Sender, Wrong Address.”)