fiddler in the post: a serious violation of trust

In the developed world we entrust much to others. Over centuries we have built up a system of agencies which provide services and act for us which works only because they are trusted by the community.

The postal system is exactly one such thing. In this blog article I examine how what appears to be just rough postal handling is perhaps a disguise for the opening and pilfering of contents of my packages. The evidence is quite compelling. Naturally I am also taking this up with Australia Post and I will post updates of this as they come to hand. This blog post also serves for me to document my experiences while the memory is fresh and I am certain of what I found.

When I left Finland I posted back to my home many boxes of stuff, as a quick cost analysis showed that without "connections" in shipping it was economic (if still expensive) to use the postal system.

I packed all items well, wrapping most extensively in bubble wrap and some in camping mattress foam then bubble wrap.

When the first of my boxes arrived I was quite shocked to see how badly they had traveled. For example:



I was quite saddened that my boxes were carried so badly and at the same time worried about what else (more fragile) would be destroyed (such as our wedding champagne flutes, which were indeed destroyed).

Of course these boxes have come an uncertain route from Finland to Australia, so I could not have been certain as to exactly where the rough handling happened, but clearly this box was patched up by Australia Post.

I was at first thinking that some Aust Post worker had found the box gaping or torn and had patched it for me ... for which I was grateful.

However as I unpacked one of the more beaten examples I discovered this:



If you can't for some reason watch that video, I have found another postal item packed inside my item.

and here is that postal item in a little more detail.



Exactly how does an item posted from Finland back in early April end up containing an item that was posted in Ipswich Auatralia in late April?

Its also interesting that the other persons package was also opened and did not contain his contents (it contained some other items).

So at this point we have:

• at least this package of mine opened unofficially and searched as well as having items it contained destroyed (and perhaps something missing, we are still assessing this)
  
• another party's postal item, from Ipswich, opened unofficially and his items stolen
• the items of yet another (third) persons materials poked into the tube of the above mentioned party from Ipswich.
  

Its interesting to note that the postal date on that item would seem to be the 28th of April and this box was made available to me at my post box on the 8th of May. So clearly at least that item (if not the box) had been sitting around in a postal center (while the fiddler got a chance to fiddle in private) since around then.

The sender of the postal tube tells me he sent this from Ipswich and the destination was Nerang.

So now I'm quite confident that the damage occurred in Australia. In fact some of the barcodes placed on the item for tracking in Australia (at point of entry in Melbourne) were so scuffed and abraded that the postal worker at my post office was unable to read them with his bar code scanner. As all of the boxes are like this its further evidence that the bashing took place in Australia.

However I suspect strongly that the damage was deliberate, done to mask what would be obvious signs of intrusion and searching on otherwise well presented boxes. I know that I packed things in these boxes carefully and used the shapes of objects to make a nice tight jigsaw puzzle holding the interior together.

This also allows a bit of cross referencing of the likely points of meeting of the two items and as I'm in Brisbane, it must be around this area where the fiddler is.

After the shock of this revaluation I began examining my other boxes more carefully. This box (which I had re-sealed to allow me to carry it)



With the light of the above revelations I noticed that this box shows a very tidy hand hole in the box to allow someone to grope around inside the box.

There is an interesting "fold" in the box there, indicating its been dropped heavily on that end. I don't believe this hole is anything other than man made.

Now sadly since this occurrence I've been doing some Google searching and I find that this is not a rare or unique occurrence.

Further (unlike one cockheads reply to this youtube post) this is neither something we should learn to live with or something we should tolerate. It is infact a criminal offense with a 5 year jail term.

Compared to the postal service of Finland the Australia post service is pathetic. In Finland any damage or resealing is identified on the post item and even where it happened is notice. They seem to offer a trustworthy and honest service.

Now Australians would be quick to ridicule third world ex-soviet and developing countries as being exactly the sort of places you would not want to send anything by post which was valuable or delicate because "you could be sure it will be pilfered" along the way.

Well it is seeming to me that Australia is now falling into that category. A quick Google on this topic will show many many more issues.

Folks, this is rapidly heading to be something which I feel warrants as much of an enquiry as the corruption in the Police has warranted.

More to follow...