Woman did not sign for certified mail found on doorstep; documents missing

An East El Paso woman contacted ABC-7 after finding a certified mail package on her doorstep, addressed to her, that she says she never signed for.

Mary Montreal told ABC-7 she found that certified mail package — containing important court documents — on her porch in East El Paso March 2, 2017.

Montreal took pictures, showing the package was torn. It contained hundreds of pages, some of which blew away. Others were found all over her porch.

Montreal told ABC-7 she was not home when the package was delivered. She said it was a bit windy and when she came home on March 2, so she had to chase down some pages that escaped the envelope and blew into her yard.

She contacted her Post Office on George Dieter in an attempt to find out who signed for the certified mail and was shown a receipt with a signature. But Montreal said she told the Post Office supervisor it was not her signature and she showed ABC-7 her actual signature on a Military I.D.

Montreal said she asked the Post Office to give her the name of her carrier so she could file a police report, but was told they could not provide her that. So she contacted ABC-7.

“My concern is that they are legal documents and if they’re not all getting to me in a timely fashion that could potentially hurt my case,” Montreal said. “That’s my number one concern. My other concern is, if it’s happen to me, maybe it’s happening to other people.”

A regional spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service told ABC-7 there are three kinds of certified mail:

Basic, which requires a signature from someone at the delivery address to confirm receipt of the mail
Restricted delivery, which requires a signature from the addressee or someone named by the addressee in writing
Adult signature restricted delivery, which requires confirmation that the person signing for and accepting the delivery is 18 years of age or older.

ABC-7 was told a review of Montreal’s complaint by the U.S. Postal Service that her certified mail package was of the “basic” variety, which only requires a signature from “someone” at the delivery address.

ABC-7 was also told the carrier was interviewed and stated he obtained the “customers” signature prior to the delivery, although Montreal maintains that she was not home and never signed for the package.

ABC-7 was also told U.S. Postal Service policy prohibits the disclosure of specific employee names to customers.