Dear Editor, Ironically, one of the few pieces of mail that actually made its way into our new community mailbox last week was the Rocky View Weekly newspaper. The front page alerts me that residents of Rocky View County (RVC) are frustrated with mail service lately. No kidding. We have been residents of RVC for 18 years. In early July this year, our mailboxes were vandalized. We were never told our box had been opened and emptied, but figured it out when someone started cashing cheques in my name. Our co-operative bank rectified this immediately, and asked for the police report of the mail theft so they could pursue the issue themselves, as they have video of this criminal. Anxious to accommodate, I left three voice messages with the fellow I was told to speak to, requesting the case number – still haven’t heard back from him. Meanwhile, new mailboxes are installed about 20 feet further back from where the old boxes were located. We were issued a new set of keys, as well as new module and compartment numbers. At the end of September, we were advised of our radically different new address – even the postal code changed. Who knew moving the boxes back 20 feet would constitute a change in postal code? We were told priority one is getting our driver’s licenses changed, so we must do that. And we received another new set of keys and module and compartment numbers, just when I’d memorized the last ones – let’s do be sure and make this as confusing as possible. Now, it’s time to worry about having to change our address – not something we had put a lot of thought into, on account of we haven’t actually moved. But, not to worry, the letter we received states Canada Post will forward our mail for a whole year. Phew, what a relief. Oct. 15 arrives, and we get some mail. And then, it stops. Then, another piece comes, but not that which we were expecting, so off to the Airdrie post office we go. Lo and behold, they have some of our anticipated mail. It appears as though they are forwarding mail using our old address back to Airdrie instead of to our box. I’ll call that ‘Canada Post logic’ for lack of a better explanation, as they had none. They were, at least, able to provide us with the correct name of the person to call with regards to the July theft, and this guy answered his phone. He asked me for my address and I asked, “Which one?” Turns out he was unaware that a theft had even occurred; therefore there may be no police report to give me. He said because there are so many mail thefts, Canada Post doesn’t necessarily always report them all. Wow. Yup, it’s still a federal offense… Melody Taylor Division 7
