Generally, there are two types of people in this world: those who stay organized and those who don’t.

So, what would you do if you received a birthday card for the previous tenant who moved out nearly four years ago? Would you put it back in the mailbox and “return to sender?” Or would you open the card and see if you can learn anything about the person?

In the following story, one man finds himself in this situation and ends up calling the previous tenant’s mother. Here’s how it all played out.

You’ve got mail…

When my girlfriend and I first moved in together, we were meticulous in updating our mailing address for all of the places that sent us mail. The previous tenant here, well, he wasn’t nearly as thorough.

Almost immediately, we began to receive mail addressed to him. Mail from his bank, government agencies, and half a dozen other companies was all getting delivered to us.

For the first few of his letters we received, I did the responsible thing, and I wrote “return to sender, recipient moved” on the envelopes and put them back in the mail.

Then, a birthday card showed up.

After a month of continuing to receive his mail, I just started tossing it directly in the trash. I figured if he can’t be bothered to update his address, I shouldn’t be bothered to send it back. And so was the status quo for the next 3 years.

The frequency of the misdirected mail slowly decreased over time, but every month or two, we would get something with his name on it, and it would go straight into the trash.

That all changed when one very peculiar letter landed in our mailbox, a birthday card. Up until now, I had refrained from opening any of this guy’s mail, but curiosity got the better of me, and I opened the birthday card.

He called the guy’s mom and explained the situation.

Inside the card was a lovely note from this guy’s parents, and a cheque.

In my part of the world, personal cheques have the contact information of the account holder on them, so I called his mom. I was polite and let them know that their son had moved out nearly 4 years ago and that I was tossing the card and cheque in the trash.

I like to imagine that the guy got chewed out by his parents for not giving them an updated mailing address, because we haven’t received any more of his mail since then.

Wow! Luckily, her contact info was on the envelope.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think about what happened here.

You would think the courts would know.

This person returned mail to a bank.

Oh yikes!

That’s not her problem.

This is not his problem, but it sure was nice of him to contact the person’s mother.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.