13,000 Pieces of Unopened Mail to be Returned to Bonny Doon Residents- Santa Cruz Sentinel Article

By Shanna McCord - Santa Cruz Sentinel Staff Writer

Article Launched: 10/31/2008 08:21:00 AM PDT

BONNY DOON - Roughly 13,000 pieces of mail addressed to Bonny Doon residents were found stashed inside the van of a 78-year-old man who had spent eight years delivering mail in the San Lorenzo Valley, U.S. Postal Service officials said Thursday.
The mail was discovered by Scotts Valley police who came across the parked van last week. When they peeked inside the van, which had keys hanging in the door, they saw the bundles of mail - all unopened.
An investigation is under way by the U.S. Postal investigation division.
The mail will be returned to the proper recipients.
"The mail was never opened, just not delivered," said Gus Ruiz, spokesman for the Bay Valley Postal Service. "There was no breach of confidence here. No one's identity was compromised."
The most recent letters were dated 2006 and some were older, Ruiz said.
No complaints were ever made about the missed mail in the past couple of years, he said.
"We had no reason to suspect anything was wrong," Ruiz said.
The former mail carrier, a contract employee, quit working for the U.S. Postal Service in June.
It's not known what penalties, if any, he could be facing, Ruiz said.
Bonny Doon mail is delivered by a private citizen on contract rather than by an employee of the U.S. Postal Service.
Problems arose three years ago with unreliable mail service in the small Santa Cruz Mountains town. Back then, complaints were made about missing mail, wrong deliveries, late deliveries or none at all.
It's possible the undelivered mail discovered last week is related to the problems in 2005.
U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, helped correct the problem in 2005 by instituting daily and weekly performance reviews of contract mail carriers.
Today, Aron Jones, postmaster for the Santa Cruz Post Office, will send the 1,100 Bonny Doon residents letters to alert them of the recovered mail.
"Because this mail has never been opened, we feel that your identity was never compromised," Jones wrote. "However, if you have reason to believe checks, financial statements or credit cards may not have been delivered, you may want to follow up with your bank or credit card company."
The mail is expected to be returned to the proper recipients by next week, Ruiz said.
If there is any financial fraud discovered related to this mail, residents can call the Postal Inspection Service at 408-938-4804 or 408-938-4803.

Contact Shanna McCord at 429-2401 or smccord@santacruzsentinel.com.