How Many Postal Workers Does It Take ...
iStockPhoto.com
If this sounds like the start of a bad joke, please forgive Philadelphia writer Leigh Deveres for filling in the punch line.
For the last two years Deveres has been receiving periodic but regular bundles of mail intended for the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court.
The most recent batch was delivered to her this summer. The clerk’s office is housed in the 31-story landmark building known as the Richard J. Daley Center in the heart of downtown Chicago. That’s Chicago, Ill. Deveres lives in a three-story, single-family house in suburban Philadelphia. That’s Philadelphia, Pa.
So why is Deveres getting courthouse mail—including responses to jury summonses—delivered to her? A representative for the office of the clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County also declined to comment. But the best Deveres can figure is that the two share a similar street address.
That’s where the similarities end. Deveres lives on Washington Lane; the Daley Center is located on Washington Street. Still, she notes without a hint of irony, “A lot of people had to fall down for this to happen.”
Deveres says she brought the mix-up to the attention of the U.S. Postal Service in Chicago, where a representative told her that it shouldn’t be happening. A spokesman for the USPS in Chicago said he could not comment without first seeing the errant mail.
Well, Deveres could mail it to him.
