Cameron Fruit, a language translator at the Wyclisse Bible Translation Mission, said he ordered an HP mini-notebook computer online from Hewlett-Packard in May. But since the company did not ship to the CNMI, he asked a friend in the states to send the package to him. It never arrived.
Fruit said he traced the package based on the tracking number provided by his friend who sent it and discovered that the package did arrive and was received at the main post office in Chalan Kanoa.
“I’m not pointing at anybody but my package was lost somewhere between the main post office and the post office in San Vicente where I get my mail,” Fruit said.
He said it was a good thing he had the package insured, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten his money back.
This, however, involved a lot of paperwork and “too much hassle” involving the U.S. Postal Service office in Missouri, he added.
Fruit finally got the insurance money in October.
He said as far as he knew, authorities were not investigating what happened to his computer.
It was also not his first time to lose something in the mail, he said.
He also lost a package from the states but did not follow it up.
“The problem seems to be more widespread than I realized, and it seems to me someone should start looking for the culprit,” Fruit said.
Postmaster Hector Medina assured customers that mail thefts are an extremely rare occurrence and that they are working to prevent such incidents in the future.
The Variety last week reported that radio show host Rovel T. Caberos of Magic 100.3 FM lost two netbook computers sent to him through the U.S. Postal Service.
