LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – You were doing something that appeared innocent enough. You had baked cookies for your disabled neighbor, Edna. Apparently, she has more of a social life than you do and wasn’t home when you went out for delivery. Instead of leaving the cookies at her door where animals could get them, you opened up her mailbox and put them inside.

FELONY! FELONY! FELONY!

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No, not really. At least what you did doesn’t have to be charged as a felony. But it IS a federal crime to put anything other than mail in a mailbox. It’s also illegal to open someone else’s mailbox other than your own because only authorized United States Post Office (USPS) delivery personnel are allowed to place items in a mailbox. Placing unstamped plates of cookies in a mailbox is against the rules. By law, a mailbox is intended to be used only for the receipt of postage-paid U.S. Mail.

That includes Christmas cards, too.

Those of you who put a Christmas card in your neighbor’s mailbox, shame on you! The USPS doesn’t appreciate that. While they recognize that customers may want to place things including non-mail items into mailboxes for convenience, it causes mailboxes to get full. And when a mailbox is full, Postal Service regulations say the letter carrier cannot place mail in the box.

The USPS frowns upon people who put a card or a letter in someone’s mailbox without a stamp. Mail in mailboxes MUST be properly addressed and have postage on it. They also don’t like it if you place a flyer in a mailbox. Are you looking for your lost dog? Too bad. They want you to find another way to distribute your flyer with your cute little fuzzy dog’s face on it. If you are a non-profit group having a fundraiser of some sort, you are not allowed to stuff people’s mailboxes with your advertising.

Amazon drivers aren’t supposed to put packages in your mailbox either unless they are shipped by USPS.

Privacy is a concern.

The USPS has very strict rules about mailboxes. On their website, they want everyone to know that federal law dictates the mailbox rules. Postmaster Keith Jackson said in a 2010 posting of the rules, “We know many customers might not object to having a particular item placed in their mailbox from time to time, but the reasons for restricting use of mailboxes is really two-fold…First, if there is not enough room in a mailbox due to unauthorized items, the Postal Service can’t deliver the customer’s mail. Secondly, the Postal Service wants to ensure the integrity of our customer’s mailbox.”

Postmaster Jackson continued, “That’s why only Postal Service personnel are authorized to place mail in or remove mail from mailboxes. In fact, U.S. Postal Inspectors advise customers to report people going mailbox to mailbox who are not postal employees. It could be someone completely unaware of the statute placing advertisements, but it could also be someone trying to steal mail.”

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The only exception to the mailbox rules are newspapers which can be placed in mailboxes but only on Sundays, a non-delivery day for the Postal Service.

What is the Mailbox Restriction Law?

The Mailbox Restriction Law was adopted by Congress in 1934. It’s designed to stop people from delivering unstamped letters which were cutting into the revenues of the postal service.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the mailbox restriction in 1981 when civic groups, which had delivered unstamped material about their activities in mailboxes, claimed that the mailbox restrictions abridged their First Amendment rights to free speech and the press. The Court denied the groups’ claim, ruling that the law and enforcement actions were not geared in any way to the content of the message placed in mailboxes. In addition, the Court also found that mailboxes are an essential part of national mail delivery and that postal customers agree to abide by laws and regulations that apply to their mailboxes in exchange for the Postal Service agreeing to deliver and pick up mail in them.

In 1997, the USPS provided the House of Representatives a report titled “Information About Restrictions on Mailbox Access.” It was done in response to a request from an oversight committee to assess whether changes were needed to the law that gives the USPS “exclusive access to mailboxes.” In the report, it says that the law was necessary to “protect postal revenue, facilitate efficient and secure delivery of mail, and promote the privacy of postal customers.”

What about competition?

Now that it’s 2023, the USPS competes mostly with FedEx and UPS for package delivery. With Amazon orders being placed all the time, USPS seems busier than ever. However the online company hopes to deliver their own packages someday as they expand their logistics empire. But for now, USPS is still a big player in moving mail AND packages around the country.

But they do so at a loss. A BIG loss. The latest data shows that the USPS operated at a $6.5 billion loss for the 2023 fiscal year. While doing so, on average, they continue to process and deliver approximately 162.1 million pieces of first-class mail every day – and process and deliver 23.8 million packages. That’s a lot of stuff in a lot of mailboxes.

So what happens if your neighbor catches you on camera putting something in their mailbox that isn’t their mail? Well, if they lodge an official complaint or if a postal employee catches you in the act, the fines could cost you up to $5,000. If you’re a business, those fines could double – per violation.

So if you put some cookies or a present or a Christmas card in a friend’s mailbox over the holidays, you are just lucky that you weren’t cuffed and arrested.

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

Speaking of getting cuffed and arrested…In Michigan, there is also a law called the “Mail and Mail Depository Protection Act” of 2019 which addresses taking, holding, concealing or destroying mail addressed to another person with the intent to defraud any person or deprive the person to whom the mail was addressed of the mail.

Yes, that means if you are hiding something from your spouse that came in the mail with their name on it, you could (first offense) be imprisoned for up to a year and pay a fine or $500 (or both). Subsequent violations mean that you committed a felony and can be imprisoned for up to five years and pay a fine up to $1,000 (or both).

So if you think you are being cute by destroying political advertising that you don’t believe in because your spouse is of a different political party than you are, think again. It could land you in really hot water – and not just with your spouse.