Lost passport? Call the post office!

[Dreamstalker]

Our apartment is equidistant to two post offices; the "main" one, which has a kiosk and offers various services (passports, etc) and a smaller one that just has counter service and 2-3 banks of PO boxes. Yesterday I had a few packages to send out so mom and I went to the smaller office (don't feel as rushed if I have an international or otherwise complicated mailing; in general they're nicer there). While we were mailing our stuff a worker hangs up the phone--looking quite amused--and regales all present with the following:

A man called from Ireland, asking about a passport that was renewed (we think; that part was a bit fuzzy) and sent to a post office in $NotMyTown on the other side of Boston. I guess he wanted someone to go to $NotMyTown, pick the passport up, and bring it to $MyTown so...a friend could mail it off to him? I don't know; even the postal worker looked utterly bewildered.

Why in the name of Cthulhu's bunny slippers would you call the wrong post office to tell them to send someone over to a completely different one (I don't think you can have another person pick up a passport for you)?

We couldn't figure out how the post office factored into it to begin with; wouldn't one go to the American consulate/embassy if you lost a passport?

[Sheldonrs]

Maybe he's from one of those small towns in Ireland where everyone knows everyone and he figured it's the same here.
It's kind of cute in a way if that's the case.

[Pagan]

A man called from Ireland, asking about a passport that was renewed and sent to a post office in $NotMyTown (a few miles away). I guess he wanted someone to go to $NotMyTown, pick the passport up, and bring it to $MyTown so...a friend could mail it off to him? I don't know; even the postal worker looked utterly bewildered.

Why in the name of Cthulhu's bunny slippers would you call the wrong post office to tell them to send someone over to a completely different one (I don't think you can have another person pick up a passport for you)?

We couldn't figure out how the post office factored into it to begin with; wouldn't one go to the American consulate/embassy if you lost a passport?

It doesn't sound like it was lost though. When I got my renewal passport, it just came in the regular mail, didn't have to sign for it. And considering that you do your passport application at the Post Office, I can get why he called.

But, why didn't he just have his friend go to blah Post Office and mail it from there? And why the hell did he decide to travel on a passport that was going to expire when he was out of the country?

[Dreamstalker]

I really couldn't figure out what happened to the passport, that was speculation. But still...what did the PO have to do with it?

[ZedOmega]

I really couldn't figure out what happened to the passport, that was speculation. But still...what did the PO have to do with it?

That's what I'm still brain-farting on. Wouldn't replacing a lost passport be the domain of the US Embassy if it's lost while you're out of the country?

[csquared]

When you renew your passport, you have to surrender your old one. How did he get to Ireland without a passport?

When I went to Italy in '08, the airline had to do an override on The Wife's passport. It expired in three months. They said that they normally won't let you on the plane if you don't have at least six months left.

There has got to be more stupidity to this story than what Dreamstalker was told.

[Dreamstalker]

The only conclusion any of us could come to was that he lost it; even so, that's what the consulate/embassy is for. You need to show up in person to apply for/collect a passport...unless he was trying to get it replaced via mail and thought the PO would somehow forward it for him? He even knew he was calling the wrong office, and admitted as such (before apparently asking if they could send someone over there).

Headscratcher for sure, that one. We only heard one end of the conversation, so who knows what really went on.