Could be illegal but wwyd?

[Mollychristmas]

This might sound awful (and illegal although I can’t see how anyone would know!) but what would you do in this situation?

We’ve had some Christmas cards delivered to our house addressed to the old owners. This is the first year we have got them so I imagine the old owners redirect has ended. (We have lived here just over 2 years)
From feeling the weight and how flexible the cards aren’t I think a couple might have money/gifts cards/letters in them.
Now for the AIBU, would you open them and hope for a return address?
Or would you just chuck?

I am of the mind to open and see if there is a return address, if not I would donate any money and chuck the cards, DH thinks that’s awful not to mention illegal and we should just chuck them even if there is money etc in them.

We don’t know the old owners new address but I suppose the estate agents might do something although having been over two years now I don’t know if they would or even could help (data protection et al) and it seems a huge amount of hassle for a few Christmas cards. The cards don’t have a return address.

What would you do?

Yeah, to be honest, I'd keep the money too...

Ok so really I did open them (After I had phoned the CAB who said to call 101 who said to take them to the police which I did but they gave them back)
One contained £50 in cash the other had a gift card for Starbucks. One had a letter from long lost uncle Tarquin who wants Mr and Mrs smith (the old owners) to attend a family get together in the new year for a very special surprise (which sounded very suspect to me!)

Is that better?

I would have opened them and if there was cash inside I probably would have kept it...

Me too 😂

That's definitely better!

palavar that's so sad

Didn't the letter have an address?

@Mollychristmas you're too good at this, now I'm not quite 100% sure that uncle Tarquin isn't real..

The last time I opened post not addressed to me but sent to my address it contained a shiny new Selfridges store card with an opening balance and statement of just over £1K. We'd lived at our address for over 20 years at that point and I knew all the neighbour's names so it wasn't a simple address error. It was fraud. I called the store card company immediately and got it sorted.

That was in the days when debt was attached to an address rather than just a a person. I'm bloody glad I opened it and would do so again. Unless you are diverting or deliberately collecting someone else's mail to open it for fraudulent purposes what on earth is the problem with opening mail that is delivered to your address after the previous occupants have moved on and you don't have a forwarding address? You might actually be doing them a kindness.

Didn't the letter have an address?

Yes it did:
Dr T. Make-believe
13 Not Real Lane
Bullshit on Sea
PEN N15

But obviously once I had opened the card I didn’t want to admit to postal fraud so I haven’t returned it to Tarquin, do you think I should?

We had a hospital appointment sent to our address for the former owner over 20 YEARS after we moved in. I phoned the hospital switchboard and was put through to appointments. They said they would send out another letter. they did so and it arrived at our address again. When I phoned a second time they said that the previous owners address had been changed on their records, but the correspondence address hadn't! We haven't had any post from them since then.

Oh, I have a long lost Uncle Tarquin - small world.

What a waste of time.

What a waste of time.

I take it your username is ironic?

Well it wasn’t a waste of time for me, I posted my issue, kindly got the replies I needed and then managed to find an address for old owners as a poster had suggested in our old paperwork.

What part has upset you so much? The fact I haven’t opened their post so you can get your curiosity satisfied? Or did I need to check with you that my post was interesting enough for MN?

Open to look for any relevant addresses or details.

If there's no addresses but there is money, gift cards, or anything else of value, keep it safely for a reasonable period of time in case the previous owners come looking for it. Or you can ask the estate agents if they can forward.

Safari RTFT. Or at least the post above yours 😂

@safariboot - dear God yes if there was ever a RTFT ...

Phew!! Thank GOODNESS for @safariboot's advice! We were floundering for the last 11 pages not knowing what on earth to do!

Alright, alright, so I was late to the party. Now where's the wine? Don't say it's all gone!