Did it startle you? That would have made me jump, but it would have been amusing.
The weirdest thing happened to me with package delivery. Monday morning, I had just gotten out of the shower and gotten dressed when someone knocked on the door. I did not answer it because I would have had to go running down the stairs, and since I wasn't expecting anything, I figured it might be someone selling something. That happens a lot here. But if the postal service tries to deliver something and you aren't home, they fill out a little card to tell you what they will do with your package....it will either tell you at which neighbor's house they left it, or that they will try again tomorrow, or that you can pick it up at a postal station. I have 2 postal stations a block away. So the card they left in the mail slot said I could pick it up at the Primera store the following workday after 3pm. The card was dated the 22nd, had my name and our house number were on it. So I know it was for me.
Yesterday, I went to the Primera store at 3:10, gave them the card, and she went back and looked and looked,....there was no package for me. So she punched it into the computer system...nope...nothing under my housenumber at all. So I thought maybe they put the wrong station since there are two. So I went to the Albert Heijn one and asked if it was maybe accidentally dropped off there. She looked....nope, not there either. So I went home, called the postal service, explained the situation and the gal asks for the barcode listed on the card. But there IS no barcode listed on the card. It gave no other infomation other than saying "Dear <my name)" We tried to deliver something to you. You can find information on the right side of this card to retrieve your package:
And then it had some boxes where they check whatever applies, like if it's a registered letter, or you need to pay customs charges, or whatever. And then it had the address of the Primera store with the time I could pick it up, and above that, they had written in my house number so that when I went to pick it up, they would know which package it was. And at the bottom is a place for them to write in the barcode, which they did not do. So I tell the gal on the phone that they didn't fill in the barcode. She says she'll see if she can look it up a different way. Fills in my name and address and all that....there's nothing in the system for me at all.
Ok....then why was someone at my door, presumably with a package for me? If they had nothing for me, how did they know my name and which house to go to? The gal says "You said you hadn't ordered anything and weren't expecting anything, right? Maybe it was meant for someone else and the delivery person put the card in the wrong mailslot." With MY name and housenumber on it? I kind of doubt it! So there may or may not be a package out there somewhere in the world for me, who knows where? I can't see how they would know my name and address if they weren't reading it off a label on a package/letter, but why isn't it in the system? I have no idea who sent it, what it is, WHERE it is, and the place where I was supposed to pick it up doesn't have it.
The only thing I can think of is that they wrote the house number down incorrectly on the package...wrote it tight on the card, but then put something else on the package, because they apparently look it up by house number, not name. So if your house number is 15, and they write 15 on your card but 13 on the package, and it's registered in the system as 13 then, and they are looking for 15, then they won't find it. So I'm going to call back today and see if there's anything under my name, maybe with a different house number. I'm completely baffled.
