Package Shipped In 1971 Finally Gets Delivered 50 Years Later

Imagine booking a package a week before and not receiving it yet! The horror of it would be enough to write an angry Twitter post. But in our tale today, a package was so late that it reached after 50 years! This late package showed up at the Russo family’s home earlier this year. Needless to say, it was long after they had lost all hopes of ever receiving it.[1]

Now, receiving a package wouldn’t be anything out of the blue- but one that was ordered half a century before? Well, that would obviously be a different matter altogether. In a subsequent interview with the WPTV News, Stephanie Russo mentioned that they had found a couple of parcels sitting innocuously outside their door. Since they had been receiving a lot of packages in the wake of the pandemic (they received the package in 2021), they didn’t really bother to inquire much about it.

Family Finds Late Package Delivered To Them From 1970

After they opened the parcel, they found out that the late package had two very colorful posters inside it. It was definitely quite confusing for the family as they hadn’t ordered any posters. When Stephanie looked inside the package, she found a postmark that was dated March 1971. The family made the connection that the posters were being delivered after 50 years.

Now, the family could have easily forgotten about it. But they decided to track the package in order to find out who had ordered it. They realized that the previous owner of the house must have been the one to order it in the first place. The previous owner, who currently lived near Atlanta, was John Feigert. Back in 1971, he was a teenager and lived with his parents. His father often ordered marketing apparel from other companies. So he figured that these posters could be ones that were lost in a transaction. 

Where Did They Come From?

Speaking to MarketWatch, the current owners of the late package stated that the entire scenario felt like stepping into a time-lapse. Paul Russo, the head of the household, stated, “I thought, ‘Well, something’s not right here.” After contacting John, they found out the whole story. Apparently, John’s father, Paul had packaged the posters in tube-style packaging.

He had then delivered them to his daughter who lived in Florida. Jessie, his daughter, then recently sold the posters on a popular E-marketplace. John thinks that the tubes that contained these 50-year-old posters must have slipped out of the new package. Somehow, they made their way toward the postage mail again. Since the original package had the old Florida address, they were posted back to the place it came from. 

While this may seem surprising to a lot of readers, late packages are not really out of the norm for the USPS. A spokesman from the department did note in an email that a lot of the older items get purchased at cheap flea markets, online, or even antique shops. They then get re-entered into the whole postal network. To put it simply, any piece of mail that does seem to be lost in transit for a large period of time could very well be newly sent.

Also, the pandemic has resulted in severe delay issues since 2020. This also relates to the budget cuts that had been implemented by Louis DeJoy, the Postmaster General. There was a point in time when around 20 states had plans of suing the postal service. They stated that any slowdown from the postal service would be causing massive problems with mail-in ballots for the elections in 2020. 

Read: Nobody likes self-checkout. Here’s why it’s everywhere

Late Packages Could Be Common Feature Due To Budget Cuts In The USPS

DeJoy, who had been put at the helm of the postal service responsible for the late package, had been elected during the administration of President Trump. Recently, he pushed back when he was criticized for his policies. In a Congressional hearing that took place in February 2021, he went on to declare, “Get used to me.” The spokesman from the postal service also went on to note that close to 99.89% of the election ballots of 2020 had been delivered within a week. Furthermore, the service had been able to beat the delivery projections well before the holiday season of 2021 came up. [2]

The Russo family- the receivers of the late package- mentioned that the packages had been delivered on December 26th, 2021. They went on to confirm it through the doorbell camera, which showed that a postal service employee had dropped them off. However, they didn’t open the packages until the day after that. They were in no rush to open Christmas presents after the day had already gone by.

Kudos To The Company For Following Up On It

John Feigert, to whom the posters could belong, admitted that there was a possibility that his father had written a letter to Southern Comfort. It was an alcoholic beverage that John liked. A spirits expert, Charles Cowdery, went on to mention that the posters could have been a part of a broader campaign by the brand in the 1970s. It was possibly used to encourage the public to view the alcoholic spirit as similar to an everyday whiskey that was common in most classic cocktails. 

Cowdery also stated that the company was looking to monetize by selling whiskey than a liqueur. This would help it market the liqueur to be used as a substitute for whiskey. The involvement of Cowdery with Southern Comfort also came up after the posters had been made. However, he claimed that this could be the product of advertising that was done in other parts of the country, like St. Louis. The late package posters, on their part, have also been seen as collectible. Presently, one can buy them on auction sites. eBay has listed them at a price of $99.95.

Keep Reading: Bizarre vid shows woman getting out of Amazon delivery truck with driver