Postal workers are being investigated

[spaniardx]

over claims they ate weed brownies from an unclaimed parcel and had to be collected from work because they were too high

Investigation shouldn't have taken more than a few minutes as there was video evidence in the Instagram Story. The employees in question should have been fired (we'll probably never know cuz doubt The Guardian will ever upload a follow up piece) because even if cannabis use for recreation is legal in the UK, use on the job is generally just cause for the offender to find themselves "surplus to requirements".

"Today almost all the posties in Clapham accidentally ate hash brownies and I had to pick them up one by one cause they were so high," the Instagram user wrote in their Story.....Behind the caption was a picture of the package, which had "Edibles by Pablo Chocobar" written on it, according to the outlet.

There was nothing accidental about this incident. They ignored three huge red flags to do this:

01. No return address

02. recipient address was an unoccupied house

03. the label pretty clearly stated what was inside

"We are also reminding all staff at the delivery office of the correct procedures for dealing with items with no address for delivery or return," the spokesperson said.

Which is generally code for we're standing here with trous and knickers around our ankles, egg on our face, dangley bits swinging in the chill breeze of embarrassment while quietly wishing we could lash these brain dead oinks to a boat anchor of a cruise ship and drop the lot into the nearest peat bog.

www.yahoo.com/news/postal-workers-being-investigated-over-114622042.html

[vitugglan]

So, it's the UK. I don't know if they have laws regarding tampering with the mail. If they do, this clearly falls under one or another of them. No return address? Oh, well. Empty house? Is there a change of address filed for that address? If not, what is Standard Operating Procedure? Seems that, when there is no clear entity to send the package to, the employees get whatever's inside, according to the article:

A final clip in the Instagram Story said the package had no return address and the house that the Royal Mail postal workers tried to deliver them to was empty.

"We opened them and they got given out," the caption said, adding that the brownies were eaten between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., The Guardian reported.

If that's standard for the Royal Mail, if I had to live with them, I'd be very upset. Eat (or wear or use) whatever wasn't immediately deliverable, with no query as to a change of address form or anything? What are you doing with my tax money?

[spaniardx]

Got interrupted earlier when writing the post and had to abandon it.

The parcel clearly falls under the definition of "suspicious package" and should have been passed along to their security department (yes, I have watched way too many "protecting the borders" in various country flavors on Netflix) where they don full PPE just in case. Then they would scan it (usually an X-ray) open it (carefully) and test a small sample to see if it contained anything untoward and that that was. Someone else would check the post mark to see where the package began its journey and also see if there was any info attached to the "Edibles by Pablo Chocobar". If anything popped up, the package would be sealed, marked as EVIDENCE and stored securely while those folks who sent it would be getting a visit and a chat from the nearest LEO for that.  If they got nothing, the package and contents would be destroyed.

Thing is, on your average, non-illicit materials related, package that was undeliverable or lost in the mail, at least in the US, the package is examined and the item(s) held for a once or twice a year sale and/or auction. In fact, I just googled it and it appears that the US postal orifice has an eBay account. So I wonder if they'd sell those items there?

[vitugglan]

I know the USPS has auctions for undeliverable. I don't know if they check these pkgs for any contraband or poison or such. I have no idea what other countries do.

Talk about being interrupted! The daughter called after 'undeliverable'. Talked to her for two hours. Then the other daughter called. By then I had other things to do and only finished this very short answer this morning, about 24 hours after starting it.