-
Jan 17, 2007 8:04 pm US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
USPS Changes Couple's Address Without Notice
by John Slattery
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Staten Island residents Peter and Pat Clark have been living in the same house for well over a decade, but tell that to the Post Office, who changed the couple's address without telling them, leading to what could have been a very expensive mix-up with the mail.
At issue is the street address of the Clarks' two-family home that sits on a small curve where the street changes names. The couple says ever since the house was built, it's given address was 33 Gower Street. It wasn't until recently that they learned the hard way that now it's 33 Lester Street.
"Who was it that changed the address?" Peter asks. "No one knows."
When looked at from afar, the house does in fact appear to rest on Lester, and someone apparently agreed, changing the Clarks' address without notifying them first.
Peter says he recenlty got a $25,000 santitation ticket issued for 33 Lester, which of course wasn't his address. So, he took the property deed, went to court and spoke to a judge.
"And he got on the computer and said, you're absolutely right. There's no 33 Lester. There's a 33 Gower Street. Yes, that's our address," he said.
Yet, Clark says he'd also received by mail a revised copy of the ticket, with the address corrected to say "33 Gower Street." And right after that, a tenant said she hadn't been getting her mail, and went to the post office.
"The post office notified her that the address had been blocked. They will no longer deliver mail to 33 Gower Street," Peter said.
A postal webite seemed to agree with the postmaster, showing that the address 33 Gower Street is "undeliverable." Clark went to Borough Hall, to the building's department and found that the property is actually listed under
both addresses. Now he's worried about undelivered mail, bills being returned, and an address conflict on any insurance claim.
A postal spokesman said mail to either address will be delivered, and the owner can fill out a form choosing to use one address or the other.
The fire department tells us that it has both addresses on fire for any emergency response.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)