Special Delivery At the Office

The brown paper box arrived in the mail around lunchtime at the office. It was not a large box overall; about the size of a shoebox. The fact that it was ticking was concerning though.

The staff member who usually checked the mail in the mailroom was on vacation that day. Her coworker was to step up to cover her duties which included sorting the mail for the department and giving each program their packages and letters. This coworker was not used to being the one to check the mail, so the package stayed longer in the mailroom than it would have usually.

When the coworker remembered her duty, she went to pick up the package, but was on her cellphone at the time talking to her husband, so she missed the quiet ticking of the package. She did look at the label and figured out it had the main department’s address and name which meant the Administrative Staff was to open the package, which for that day made it her duty. As she hung up with her husband, she realized she heard the faint noise the package was making.

When one realizes they might have an actual emergency on their hands, they go through two emotions. One is thinking the worse case scenario. She immediately thought back to the training on bomb threats that she had attended, but could not remember having an actual training on a suspicious box and how to handle that situation. Instead she remembered the training about if a caller identified a bomb threat, how they were to keep the person on the phone… Did that mean somehow that she was now responsible for taking charge of the box and taking it outside and then making a call to local law enforcement? The next emotion she felt was the fear of not wanting to be known forever in the office as that girl. The one that thought something innocent was a ticking bomb. She knew that was a reputation she would never live down. She even remembered how a previous safety officer had used an example of an overly concerned citizen who called law enforcement on a meter reader because she was concerned that the man was trying to cause mischief. The story was told as a reminder that it was better to be vigilant than to not take something serious, but she did not want to have that reputation for the rest of her working career. No thank you!

Luckily, about the time she was going through both of these emotions a fellow coworker came by who recognized the packaging tape used on the box. It was regular tape, but it covered stickers for the latest holiday to make the whole package seem a little more cheery. She mentioned that one of the clients liked to send packages to the director of unique items that could be used to raise funds for the nonprofit associated with the department.

Not wanting to alert her coworker to the thoughts that had been going through her mind, she carefully took a pair of scissors and cut through the tape and stickers. She carefully peeled back the cardboard flaps and pulled aside the tissue paper and bubble wrap inside. The middle lump was separate and completely concealed by more bubble wrap. She carefully used the scissors to once again cut through tape that had sealed the wrap to itself.

She unravelled the plastic to reveal a small antique pocket watch that was obviously of a higher end value. Knowing the package had been mailed off the day before (one of the many things she had took into account when she thought she might be dealing with a time sensitive bundle) she knew that only higher end watches would still be keeping the time a full day later. Otherwise, a pocket watch would cease to tick without having had anyone to wind it up. She set the watch and box to the side and knew that after her heartbeat returned to normal, she had some extra work ahead of her now to find out the significance of the watch. This would include whether it was something that needed to be saved for their next dinner and auction, or if it was an item they needed to see about getting an estimate on to auction off in a different manner. Either way, she was glad that she had not had to resort to calling the police that day; crisis averted!

Written for Summer Challenge #3. If you like, leave a heart. Tips appreciated for encouragement! Full time employee headed back to school who is not afraid to ask for tips. :)