The Mystery Gift

Any idea who sent it or why?

Our community mail box, photo mine

The surprise

Our mail arrives in a community receptacle located at the end of our street. Each of us has our own locked compartment, but there are two larger sections at the bottom for packages. The mail person will leave a key to one of those bins with our mail whenever a parcel has been delivered for us.

The other day, I got the key to box number one. Writing that makes me feel like a contestant on “Let’s Make a Deal” with Monty Hall. I opened the door to discover a very strange package. It was a drying rack for dishes. We have one already, and it’s nothing we’ve ever discussed replacing.

The mystery gift, photo mine

My assumption was that the key had been dropped into our box by mistake. We often need to deliver each other’s mail after the postal person gets it wrong. Looking up, I saw some neighbors sitting outside watching the world go by. “You didn’t happen to order a drying rack for dishes, did you?” I asked.

“No, not us.”

“It can’t be for us, we’ve already got one,” I said.

“Look for the name on the label,” she replied. Duh.

Sure enough, it was addressed to my wife. The neighbors laughed as the fellow said, “Looks like someone has been shopping online.”

My wife’s not a shopper. When she does decide to buy something online, it’s usually a several-day process where she considers her options, then reconsiders them over and over before clicking the “Place Order” button. Somewhere in there, she involves me in the process.

As sure as I was that she didn’t order the item I was holding, it had her name on it.

“Maybe someone just used the box to send us something,” she guessed.

Nope, it was a dish drying rack, alright. Who sends someone something like that? Barb’s birthday and Mother’s Day were both already passed. There wasn’t even an occasion for her to receive a gift.

“Put Andrea on the case,” I said. Andrea is our daughter-in-law and enjoys solving mysteries. We consider her an amateur sleuth.

Andrea came up empty. “That’s really random,” was her reply.

Possibilities

Here’s a list of the possibilities we’ve considered: It’s a scam of some sort, but we’ve not been billed or contacted about it.

Barb won a prize in a contest she doesn’t remember entering; what kind of prize is a dish rack?

It’s a case of sleep ordering; nothing has been billed to our credit card.

Someone is sending people odd items for no other reason than to drive them nuts.

Somewhere, someone loves their dish rack so much that they decided to send one to my wife as a thank you for some of the online counseling she’s been doing. But wouldn’t they contact her to ask if she received it/liked it?

Is it symbolic, a message-gift? What could be the message behind giving someone a dish rack? It’s not like finding a horse’s head in your bed or a bouquet of flowers on your front porch.

It was made in China. Is this a way for the Chinese to spy on everyday Americans? Is it actually a transmitter of some sort? Are they recording how often we do our dishes?

Help us out here; give us your best guess. The only return address was from Amazon. There was no gift receipt or note. Has anything like this ever happened to you?

BTW, we threw our old one out and are using the new dish rack. It’s stainless steel and looks nicer than the old plastic one. So, if you’re the one who sent it, thank you. You’ll understand why we haven’t sent a thank you card: we’re not clairvoyant.

Our new dish rack, photo mine

Caution

Mystery solved? We just learned about a new scam called Brushing. People are sent unsolicited items. Their names are then used for fake product reviews. You can Google the scam for how to protect yourself if you receive items you did not order.

Do not scan any QR codes or attempt to contact the company that sent it. Do not try to return the merchandise. Check your bank accounts and credit cards for unauthorized purchases. Consider putting a Freeze on your credit reports.

Stay safe out there.