Who owns your mailbox?

A few days ago I made arrangements with a friend to drop off a package in my mailbox (my house is a distance from the road).

Yesterday I received a pink notice for an item ordered by mailorder. At the post office, the counter nazi presented me with my friend's package and a bill for "postage due" of $2.90

I balked, she got the post master who showed me printed rules and said "we have this regulation so just anybody, like Fed Ex cannot put items in your mailbox.

It was MY mailbox. It was a package I had asked to be placed there. In my mind, the post office stole it and wanted to charge me for it.

Is this riduculous, or am I on a different wavelength?

p.s. I left the post office with my package and did NOT pay the $2.90.

You're not even supposed to put an unstamped, hand-delivered letter in them, apparently.

you own it, but "they" control it.

sounds like you didn't tip your mailman at xmas and he took the box back to the office to teach you a lesson.

at least he didn't call the bomb squad and have it destroyed.

You own the post.

isn't mailbox baseball a federal offense?

do anything about it, any more than they could about someone putting something through the mail slot in your door.

I'd have some words with your busy body postman the next time he came by.

but really pushing it with this.

Whether it is attached to your house or not. That is why you should get a mail *slot,* then everything is inside your home and there are no rules.

their expense rural mail boxes which meet official standards. Then, I believe, the mail box cannot be used for anything other than mail. Actually, they could have taken the package and not even told you. Once I put a letter in my neighbor's mailbox (with a check for something - no stamp). Neither of us ever saw it again.

Should I be concerned?

Have a personal mailbox installed, large enough for packages and such, attached to your house, and make sure your trusted friends are in the know.

AFAIK Any item placed in a mailbox must be stamped. Regardless of if the post office has to move it or not. And when it comes to campaign literature. Your candidates don't want to find out in the paper that any of us have dropped stuff in peoples mailboxes.

Been that way for years.

I think they were shitty to go after you on this. The rules are intended to keep local mass marketers and others from stuffing your mailbox full.

The proper question is "Who may put items into your mailbox?". The answer is "only the USPS, even if the owner consents", and here's an article that explains why:

http://www.cwu.edu/~carbaugh/Postal%20Service.htm

It's only for USPS delivered items:)

I've never heard of the Post Office trying to charge for items left in a mailbox, but they do have the legal right to.

That's why when the tree service/house painting/ window washing services come around with their fliers, they attach them to the outside of the box instead of sticking them inside.

Here's a scary thing: mailboxes are considered Federal property and destruction of one is a Federal crime. I know someone whose teenager did this, got caught, and the nutso prosecutor wanted to charge him with a felony under Federal anti-terrorism laws!