PACKAGES NOT PRESENTED TO CLERKS RETURNED

Debra Rau was surprised when packages that had been mailed at a drop box at the post office ended up back on her doorstep, and some may even have been sent to the dead-letter office. It was Rau's introduction to a postal regulation that stamped mail weighing more than 16 ounces must be taken to a postal clerk to be hand canceled. If it is mailed at a drop box, it will be sent back to the return address. If there is no local return address, it will be sent to a regional dead-letter office, where it will be opened and the contents inspected before being sent to its destination, said Mike Keefe, postmaster for Cape Girardeau."We were asked by the FAA to institute this policy," Keefe said. It's a security measure taken to help keep explosive devices off planes, he said.

Keefe said notices about the regulation, which also requires international and military mail weighing more than 16 ounces to be handled by clerks, are posted above mail slots inside post offices and on all outside drop boxes.

In the lobby of the Cape Girardeau Post Office the notice is above the mail slots and the large package drop. These notices are printed in white letters on a blue background on a 5-by-4-inch card within a blue 7-by-5-inch frame and tend to blend into the wall. Much more visible are the notices on the outside drop boxes. These outside notices have red letters on a white background with a large "stop" at the top.

Keefe said problems with this regulation are rare. Companies generally use metered postage, which can be traced so it can be mailed at drop boxes. Most individuals mailing a package go to clerks to have the package weighed to determine the postage, and the clerk takes the package.

Rau's packages mailed at a drop box went afoul of the regulation because they weighed more than a pound, had stamps for postage and the return address on them was the person they were being sent to.

Rau is coordinating a millennium quilt square exchange among 80 people from across the country and a few foreign countries. Each of those participating in the exchange mailed squares cut from 25 different fabrics to Rau, who sorted them so each person would get 2,000 squares, with each square a different fabric.

Those participating sent return packages along with their fabric squares. Those packages had enough postage in stamps for the return trip, but most of these people used their addresses as the return address.

It is those return addresses from elsewhere being mailed at a drop box in Cape Girardeau that might send the packages to the dead-letter office in Minneapolis.

Keefe said the regulation was implemented about two years ago to protect against people like the Unibomber, who would drive 500 miles from his home to mail a letter so it couldn't be traced back to him."The idea is that if packages have to be handed to a clerk, bad guys will be nervous about sending explosives through the mail," Keefe said.

While this may sometimes inconvenience innocent people sending quilt squares or holiday packages, Keefe said the FAA insists that the regulation be followed since priority mail and international mail are sent on planes."This is for the safety of everyone," he said.