We rent mailboxes at the store, so we get a lot of people who mask their true address by renting a box for official correspondence and abandoning the box when they’re done with it. I’ve had to return child support notices and jury summons to sender and accept court summons for box-holders. Shady stuff.

A little while ago two sheriff’s deputies came in asking after somebody, Jane Doe, who was receiving mail at the store. They needed to drop off a summons. The box in question, though, was technically not hers any more. She was moving out of state and hadn’t renewed it. As a favor she was allowed to receive the remainder of her mail here until she left, but the box wasn’t actually hers anymore.

The sheriffs, when informed that she was moving out of state in a few days, were a little surprised. In the end they didn’t leave the summons because they could only drop it off at a legal and official point of contact.