DETROIT – A Detroit woman recently found something in the mail she wasn't expecting: a letter postmarked with the year 1955.
It made it to the right address, but it hasn't yet made it to the right person.
"I was wondering, 'What is this?'" Michelle Moore said.
Right away, there was something about a card in the mail that caught Moore's eye. The postmark said Jan. 7, 1955.
"I did the math, and, wow, the post office is late on this -- 62 years late," Moore said.
She recognized the name it was addressed to: Mr. Allan Pearlman. Moore's 85-year-old mother had bought the house from Pearlman in 1957, and still has it to this day.
She said the number below his name, 38, was the original ZIP code for her neighborhood.
"If you're not at a certain age, you wouldn't know that," Moore said.
She was holding a little piece of Detroit history, but she didn't know why or how.
"Sixty-two years," Moore said. "Where has it been? Luckily it wasn't a check. If he was waiting for a check, he would still be waiting."
The everyday letter carrier on her route has seen it all, until now.
Moore's mother also remembered Pearlman, who was a little younger than her. He could still be alive to receive the letter.
"What we typically find is that old letters and postcards sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even online are reentered into our system," said USPS Detroit in a statement.
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