Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Reunited

Albuquerque , NM, Claims and Inquiry Clerk Jose Hernandez recently had an interesting mystery on his hands. Three diaries, dated 1923, 1924, 1925, come across his desk. They had been separated from the packaging and Hernandez resolved to solve the mystery.

A diary with a letter postmarked 1923
The last name in the diaries was a unique one -- “Hertwork.” There were none in any of the local phonebooks, but Hernandez did notice postmarks stamped inside the diary from Glenshaw, PA. A call to the Glenshaw Post Office came up empty, but they referred him to a local newspaper, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.

The reporter did some research and actually found the person who sent the diaries. She was clearning out some estate holdings of a relative.
The author of the dairies was a water pipe builder and he had scribed many measurements and detailed information regarding his work. She thought that the author's great-grandson, Roy Hertweck, who also does occasional plumbing work, would be interested in the dairies so she mailed them to him in Albuquerque .

The story ends well. Hernandez called Roy Hertweck, who was delighted that the diaries were found. Above and beyond. That's what we do!
 Claims and Inquiry Clerk Jose Hernandez with Customer, Roy Hertweck
as he is reunited with his Great Grandfather’s diaries.




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great detective work! Once again, USPS comes through.

grannybunny said...

I love stories like this, that remind us of the way the Postal Service provides exceptional service all in a day's work. Can anyone imagine FedEx or UPS making the affirmative effort to locate the recipient of items found loose in transit?

desert rose said...

I'd like to applaud Mr. Hernandez for his thoughtfulness. I also imagine that he's a caring person and probably has done this before. Keep up the good work. We postal employees are proud of you!!!
Now I would like to suggest to upper management to publicize this terrific human interest story and use it as a teaching tool on how important it is to use good packaging and addressing when mailing. As a window clerk I cannot tell you how often people bring in packages to mail that are not wrapped and/or taped sufficiently to get to the next town let alone across the country. And a lot of people get offended when I ask them to put their return address on the package or letter. Doesn't that just seem logical?