Just How Desperate is USPS?

Connecticut's  WFSB-TV reports, "The Sickles, of East Hampton, thought nothing of slipping notes in the neighbors' mailboxes about an upcoming Halloween block party, until the U.S. Postal service stepped in."

According to the report, "The couple had no idea it's against postal code regulations to leave notices in residential mailboxes unless they have postage.  The U.S. Postal service charged the Sickles 44 cents for postage for all 80 invites they placed around their Royal Oak neighborhood."

Communicating via mailbox notes apparently is not unusual in the close-knit neighborhood.

One local resident Michelle Fraser is quoted in the article as saying, "We do it all the time for sending thank you notes, kid's birthday parties, anything," said

The U.S. Postal service did not return phone calls from the station seeking comment.

Apparently a law called the “mailbox restriction” was passed in 1934 that “prohibits anyone from placing mailable matter without postage into any mailbox.”

For more on this story, click here.