Why does the mailbox we pay for have "Property of US Government" stamped on it?

Question

Is my mailbox not really mine?

Answer 1

You own your mailbox and the federal government regulates it. However, I can see where you'd get the idea your mailbox was federal property – the U.S. Postal Service itself says so: "Mailboxes are considered federal property, and federal law (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1705), makes it a crime to vandalize them (or to injure, deface or destroy any mail deposited in them)." That's a bit of a stretch. The statute says, "Whoever willfully or maliciously injures, tears down or destroys any letter box or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any mail route, or breaks open the same, or willfully or maliciously injures, defaces or destroys any mail deposited therein, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years." There's nothing in there about the mailbox being federal property.

The statute does demonstrate a federal interest in protecting mailboxes. Chapter 508, Section 3.1.1 of the Domestic Mail Manual declares that "every letterbox or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any city delivery route, rural delivery route, highway contract route, or other mail route is designated an authorized depository for mail within the meaning of 18 USC 1702, 1705, 1708, and 1725." Section 1702 makes it a crime to remove mail from an authorized depository with "design to obstruct the correspondence." Section 1708 makes it a crime to steal, take, or abstract mail from an authorized depository.

Another example of the federal interest in your mailbox is the limitation placed on its use. DMM 508 section 3.1.3 says a mailbox "may be used only for matter bearing postage." It's a federal crime to deposit mailable matter without postage into a letterbox, and many items are officially nonmailable. So you can't put anything in a mailbox that doesn't have postage on it. For better or worse, neither can all those guys coming around with advertising flyers, which is why you get stuff rubber-banded to your doorknob or scattered on the lawn.

The idea behind these rules is to give the postal service a monopoly on mail, a privilege formally conferred by the Private Express Statutes. According to DMM 608, the statutes prohibit transmitting letters or packets by non-U.S. mail means without paying postage. There are exceptions, of course. The one that gets the express delivery services off the hook permits private delivery of "extremely urgent" letters. Quality Service Guide 608 spells out what qualifies as "extremely urgent" (letters sent from less than 50 miles and before noon have to be delivered by the end of the business day, for example), but there's an easier way: "It will be conclusively presumed that a letter is extremely urgent … if the amount paid for private carriage of the letter is at least three dollars or twice the applicable U.S. postage for First-Class Mail (including priority mail) whichever is the greater," says 39 USC 320.6. In other words, if the express delivery service charges you enough, the postal service will assume your letter or package really did have to get there overnight. On the other hand, if the item fits the statutory definition of mail and isn't covered by one of the exceptions, it can't be delivered. In Associated Third Class Mail Users v. USPS, the Court of Appeals ruled that a group of advertisers couldn't develop a private system to deliver generic advertisements – it had to send them through the USPS.

As you can see, these rules limit what you can do with your mailbox. Nevertheless, it's yours. According to section 2.1.3 of the manual, "Customers must provide authorized mail receptacles or door slots, except for mail receptacles authorized by the USPS to be owned and maintained by the USPS. The purchase, installation, maintenance, and replacement of mail receptacles used by customers for mail delivery are not the responsibility of the USPS."

So the post office can tell you what you must and can't do with your mailbox, but you own it in the ordinary sense. You get to buy it, maintain it, replace it, and (if you like) sell it.

Answer 2

Try to put Mail into someones Mailbox and find out.

Answer 3

18 Usc 1702

Answer 4

It is a federal offense to damage someone's mailbox.

Answer 5

The Psalmist is asserting that whether you're fairly smart or silly, wealthy or undesirable everybody will die and no one can get away the grave; you will leave each and every thing in the back of once you die. The Psalmist then is going directly to assert in verse 15 that he's conscious that he would be snatched from the grave and could be redeemed by way of God. because it truly is impossible to redeem ourselves from death, there is not any approach of fee this is ever going to be sufficient. only God pays our debt for us in finished; there is not any opposite direction to do it. Insisting on contributing in the direction of the contract is pointless and pointless. it truly is authentic that God is in fact asserting he will pay for our debt in finished. If somebody gave you a effective present, might you insist which you tried your toughest to pay them decrease back through fact it became effective, even however this may be impossible? you're able to be able to compliment to grant a plenty smaller present which you're able to arise with the money for decrease back to them as a level of your love and gratefulness, even with the undeniable fact that to grant to objective to pay for this is no longer mandatory; it truly is even offensive. The giver gave it to you through fact they needed to. God's forgiveness to us is countless, we are in a position to pay off Him by way of picking to make extra advantageous selections in existence. we don't could desire to maintain beating ourselves up with our previous blunders or incorrect doing. There are some presents you only can on no account pay decrease back. thank you is all this is mandatory.

Answer 6

Just be glad your paycheck isn't stamped "property of the US government".

That might not be too far in the future though.

Answer 7

yes, it's your property, but the mail in it belongs to the USPS until you retrieve it from your box, that way if someone steals your mail, it's a federal offense

Answer 8

are you talking about a P.O. Box at the post office?

if that is the case.. then no you do not own it, the US Government does. You "RENT" the box from them.

Answer 9

There's a difference between your mail box being yours to use and being yours to own.