Letter from City Police

[paul4gc]

Received a letter from local city police saying they have in possession an unidentified mail addressed to me, asking to come and pick it up, else it will be disposed of after 90 days. 

1. Why my mail was given to police dept, instead of delivering to my home?
2. Why police writing a separate letter to me to come and pick up my mail from their office, instead of giving my mail to USPS, so they can deliver to my home?

3. What will happen if I don't pickup the mail?

How this situation (or event) will affect my immigration process.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[pontevecchio]

This seems to be some sort of fraud. Call your local police in working hours on their NON Emergency line and inform them of what happened. You could also drop in to the precinct and show them the letter to get some guidance. If you have done nothing illegal, please do not be scared to approach police assuming you are in legal status as of now.

[Alexander-2017]

NEVER respond to such a letter. It's either a fraud as pontevecchio mentioned or a trap. If it's a trap, then the police has no evidence against you but looking for it. 

 

1) Make sure it is indeed sent by the police. Does it have a phone number? Physical address?

2) Did you place any order such as medical substances etc?

3) If you are 100% sure it's from the police department, talk to a lawyer immediately. The police department is not joking when they send such a letter.  

 

[paul4gc]

The letter has the address of our city police office, and they gave a phone number in it, to call and setup an appointment to come, identify and pick up the mail. 

I did not order any medical substance or other objectionable material to deliver by mail.

[JoeF]

It may be harmless. I saw a thread on reddit where police officers said that they find stolen mail all the time in cars from drug addicts. Drug addicts often steal mail, hoping to find paychecks, credit cards, etc. Just give them a call to find out what it is about.

Not sure if the link to reddit goes through, but here it is:

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/4agp11/so_i_got_a_letter_from_the_police_department/

 

[Alexander-2017]

I'll shed some light on my previous answer. Usually when CBP seizes a parcel that contains some prescription drugs or controlled substance, they send a letter similar to the one you described. CBP can also send the case and parcel to the local police if they think it should be escalated. That's the reason I mentioned in my previous reply to be careful. 

However, since you haven't ordered any such thing, you can give them a call. Try to know (very politely) why they want you to go there and not just send the mail to your home address (you can say you're busy etc). If they say anything like "we want to hear your story about it", etc, talk to a lawyer before you act.

[Alexander-2017]

By the way, have you changed your address recently? It could be also important mail that was delivered to your previous address and returned.

[paul4gc]

I am living in the current address for last 4 years. 

[Alexander-2017]

Talk to them on the phone and see what they say. Chances are they won't give you any information and they will ask you to just go and pick it up but  call them and give it a try anyway. You can then decide about the next steps.

[submit2junk]

If you either ordered Medicines from Overseas or some other item banned in USA possibly it got held by CBP. In an ideal situation USPS or a courier company should be handling  it.  Just don't bother about it and let the 90 day period expire as indicated in their letter. Let them throw it.