Mail opened "for inspection"

[bdstansel]

My Dec 2012 newsletter from NASPC was stamped "Opened for inspection at BMEU 43218".
I had to google to find out that BMEU was a division of the USPS, the Business Mail Entry Unit. I suppose one of the employees there was bored and wondered just what type of pipe it is that I am collecting. The envelope was resealed and the newsletter not damaged or missing anything. Still it certainly feels like more rights being infringed upon here.

 

[martiniman]

I'd understand packages but a newsletter?

 

[tbradsim1]

In the 90s i had the FBI come to my house, I has ordered a light weight motorcycle jacket only sold in Teli A Viev Israel, package was in mailbox , big black car pulls up, 2,suits get out , shows badge and wants to know what's in package, told them lets open it up, when they saw it was a jacket, they got in car and took off , no conversion. The old cajun

 

[sparroa]

Seems like it crosses the line to me...

 

[mrdoody]

that's freakin' hilarious old cajun!
doody.

 

[numbersix]

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

 

[05venturer]

that's freakin' hilarious old cajun!
+1

 

[taerin]

My gf wrote me a love letter handwritten, the post office ripped it in half and only enclosed half of the letter in the envelope with someone else's banking statement with a $500 check to their bank that they had stuck in there, with a letter that read "sorry for damaging your mail." I called up the owner of the bank statement/check, which had informed to to just shred it, so I did. My gf bless her heart, wrote me another handwritten letter.
I had a classmate who swore the FBI put him under survalience for doing internet searches on the middle east. After hearing Cajun's story, it seems much more likely to have been true.

 

[wnghanglow]

I can tell you thy do have the "right" to check any mail they want, they have to to make sure they are obeying federal law on what can be shipped where. Your package was probably flagged because someone somewhere decided all tobacco products are dangerous and should be looked at more closely. At least your products were unharmed they opened one of my packages and took the peanuts out of the box then resealed my pipe and sent it to me. I got the USPS to refund me the entire price of the pipe and shipment fee though

 

[topd]

I recently had a meerschaum pipe sent from Turkey opened and inspected. They put it in a large envelope

and sent it on the rest of it's way.

 

[shawn622]

Wow

 

[brewshooter]

Possibly they looked up NASPC and noted that it might be referring to the Naval Air Station Planning Committee.

 

[flmason]

I have received mail in the past that looks like it was run over by their truck, complete with tire tracks and all. The post office just stamps it sorry for the dameage to your mail.
The best by the post office in my family was that an invitaion for a holiday party was received 1 year late.
My dad called the party's host to say he could not attend since my mom was in the hospital. He was told they were not having a party this yeat since the party was held 1 year ago.
When my dad looked at the postmark he was it was sent one year prior.
Doug

 

[dochudson]

I had a classmate who swore the FBI put him under survalience for doing internet searches on the middle east

does that surprise anyone?

 

[hawk60ce]

Currently, I have nothing to hide, therefore i see this as a necessary evil... :evil:

 

[lazybugger]

being brand new to pipe smoking and after sampling the only thing they had available here in nz at the time (borkum riff cherry) I ordered a couple packages f tobacco from overseas ... all my tins were opened and it appears they scratched round insIde them and all the ziplock bags were not sealed when they were returned to the box resulting in a huge mix of tobacco in a box ... not that unpleasant I might add but definitely not that good either ... at $80 a 50grm tin here its to expensive and when ordering in they just trash your stuff ... not sure if I will be able to continue enjoying a pipe for much longer

 

[cortezattic]

Well thanks for joining in, you lazy bugger! :clap:

We here in the U.S.A. don't know just how good we have it. $80 for a 50g tin is obscene!

 

[madmurdoc]

I'd be pretty upset if I found out some govt agency was poking around in my mail.. I heard that TSA was setting up at a bus station in California to test whether they feel its necessary to work bus stations as well as airports. I think it was like an Amtrak bus station or something.

 

[lazybugger]

I can understand the need for checks what I cannot understand is the total lack of respect for other peoples property , I woke my association off to afford some tobacco once every couple months only to have it trashed by customs ... either do the job properly or don't do it at all ... maybe they should be held accountable for the value of every shipment they ruin ... at least that way I could afford to order some more and try more than the 2 or 3 we sometmes have available here

 

[zonomo]

hey hawk60ce - with all due respect sir, i dont agree that just because you have nothing to hide, you dont mind if your constitutional rights are violated (innocent until proven guilty). I believe that our Gov'mt collecting information on us falls into the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics - The law of Entropy. ie: Everything loses energy and decays. Although collecting information may be well intentioned today, I believe that the walls of privacy decay like Entropy. Who knows what this info will be used for in the future? I know this sounds conspiratorial, but as I age my distrust of a government's benevolence wains. Did anyone ever think the IRS would one day become an collection agency for a health care mandate? (this isn't a political statement, not commenting on the law itself but the fact that the IRS is being used for a function not originally designed for). Just my .02. Carry on.