Relieved, but confused and a bit concerned....

[Spectre38]

Before the Covid outbreak, my girlfriend and I were planning on taking a trip this fall. I realized that my passport was expired and decided to renew. I sent the passport renewal and all of the pertinent info in to the DOJ in late January. I received a confirmation that my papers had been received and were "In Process" as of Feb. 5th.

Long story short, on 6/15 I finally received notification that it had been approved and was being shipped. A tracking number was provided and the estimated delivery was to be 6/25. Anxious for it to arrive, I checked the tracking... everything was fine and on the 25th, as expected... it showed delivered at 4:47 p.m. - Placed in Mailbox. I went to the mailbox.. no passport. Immediately I got concerned.

I waited until the 26th, called my local post office and was told "If it was scanned as delivered it should be there or will be there today". The 26th came and went... no passport.

On the 27th I caught the mail carrier and asked her about it. She said " If it was scanned, it was delivered." We went round and round a bit... Finally she said " If I had it, it would be in either the deliverable mail tub, or this dead letter tub." At which time she reached into the "Dead Letter" container and asked what my address was... I told her and she miraculously produced the piece of Priority Tracked mail that had my passport.

When I asked her how it could be scanned as delivered - "Placed In Mailbox" yet it was in her dead letter tub? She looked at me and said "I am done talking to you!" and drove away.

What concerns me is how many times has this happened? How many things of mine and others have ended up in the dead letter tub when it was perfectly deliverable?