Slashdot Mirror
Man Allegedly Used Change Of Address Form To Move UPS Headquarters To His Apartment (npr.org)
As federal crimes go, this one seems to have been ridiculously easy to pull off. From a report: Dushaun Henderson-Spruce submitted a U.S. Postal Service change of address form on Oct. 26, 2017, according to court documents. He requested changing a corporation's mailing address from an address in Atlanta to the address of his apartment on Chicago's North Side. The post office duly updated the address, and Henderson-Spruce allegedly began receiving the company's mail -- including checks. It went on for months. Prosecutors say he deposited some $58,000 in checks improperly forwarded to his address.
The corporation isn't named in the court documents, but the Chicago Tribune reports that it's the shipping company UPS. In a statement to NPR, UPS said it "was notified that some U.S. mail, intended for UPS employees at the company's headquarters address, was redirected by an unauthorized change of address by a third party. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) corrected the issue and the USPS Postal Inspector is investigating the incident."
The corporation isn't named in the court documents, but the Chicago Tribune reports that it's the shipping company UPS. In a statement to NPR, UPS said it "was notified that some U.S. mail, intended for UPS employees at the company's headquarters address, was redirected by an unauthorized change of address by a third party. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) corrected the issue and the USPS Postal Inspector is investigating the incident."
Take two states that have towns with the same name, such as Westborough (a common town name in the US).
Fill out a change of address form, of your mark for Westborough, State1. Now all their mail will be going to Westborough, State1.
Fill out two other forms, one sending mail for your mark from Westborough, State1 to Westborough, State2, and the other sending mail for your mark from Westborough, State 2 to Westborough, State 1. This effectively makes a "loop" of mail forwarding at the endpoint.
(Consider adding a hand-written note "my address was changed to the wrong state by accident - please forward all my mail to the correct state until I can get it all fixed" to each side.)
I once asked a friend who works at the post office how long this would take to get sorted out, and he replied "the question is, would they be able to get this sorted out at all".