Chicago women frustrated after important documents go missing in the mail
CHICAGO (CBS) – It was a mail mystery: critical documents set to arrive from the Post Office just disappeared.
The trouble was that the women who reached out to CBS 2 said they had no choice but to rely on the U.S. Mail.
Breanne Carlson received multiple envelopes in the mail with addresses from a completely different block. She wondered if other people got stacks of her mail.
"The very important document did not come," she said, referring to her driver's license that she renewed online with the Illinois Secretary of State's Office.
The U.S. Postal Service's Informed Delivery program, which many use, showed the license on its way on Dec. 2, but she received nothing.
Akeya Channell was scratching her head as well.
"It just disappeared into thin air," she said.
She was referring to her enhanced license called the Real ID that popped up in her email inbox from the post office but never popped through her mail slot.
"I had to show my life to get that ID," Channell said. "And now it's just missing, my face, my address, and after at least three or four conversations with the post office, they can't find it."
Carlson said the ordeal has left her feeling "tired" and "exasperated."
That was because Carlson, a mom with another child on the way, was also missing the title for a car. She said she needed the title within 30 days to get her Chicago city sticker. The clerk's office dinged her with a $60 late charge.
"I'm trying to convince them to remove this superfluous fee that was not my fault," she said.
Channell said she just recently purchased a home.
"It's running through my mind, like, what if somebody tries to do something with my deed?" she said.
The stress was a clear domino effect of the mail mystery. They wondered where the important documents the women paid for were.
CBS 2 has reported in the past about mail being dumped by a postal service worker, but Carlson, a former letter carrier, doubted anything shady was happening.
"I don't think somebody's trying to do something wrong," she said. "I just think they're going about stuff the wrong way."
And Carlson has thought of solutions that start with the Illinois Secretary of State's Office.
"All they need to do is just offer you, 'Hey, will you pay five bucks extra to get tracking on this envelope?' Sure!" she said.
Channell said she would agree to such an option.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Secretary of State's Office said, "The reason we don't use other mailing options for regular transactions is because there is currently not a way to match titles with different mailing options. All titles are released by batch (7-12k) daily, stuffed and mailed directly off the printer."
"If you go to the DMV, you should just be able to just get the title right then and there," Carlson said.
Fraud concerns make it so that same-day printing and sending titles and licenses to a P.O. box are not viable options.
After hearing from CBS 2 about Carlson's concerns, the Secretary of State's Office took action. She received a test letter to make sure at least some mail made it to her.
When that worked, the state shipped a new title via certified mail.
As for the lost licenses, the U.S. Postal Service only said viewers should report missing mail.
The Chicago City Clerk's Office removed Carlson's late city sticker fee after CBS 2 reached out.
Channell's Real ID finally arrived, but only after she paid for a duplicate to be re-processed and re-sent to her home.
The Secretary of State's Office offers a certified mail option for titles. It's for expedited shipping and costs $30.