Undelivered mail — 70 pounds of it — discovered in Virginia Beach dumpster

A home contractor was walking through a construction site Thursday afternoon when he discovered several bags of mail in a dumpster in Virginia Beach.

Joe Gurganus said he doesn’t normally check the construction containers at job sites, but homeowners requested to keep leftover siding, so he was checking the dumpster to see whether there were any others inside.

“Lo and behold, I just happened to lift a piece of siding out that was covering three bags of mail,” Gurganus said.

After pulling the mail from the container, Gurganus said he called the Virginia Beach Police Department. A police spokeswoman confirmed they were called about the mail Thursday afternoon. The dumpster was in the 3200 block of Colechester Road.

Virginia Beach police then turned the investigation over to the U.S. Postal Service.

“There’s not a widespread incidence of this. It’s very rare,” Pete Brown with the USPS Office of Inspector General said in a phone call Friday afternoon.

Brown said all the mail — about 70 pounds worth — was for Virginia Beach residents, and it was all found at one site. Most of the mail was advertisements, according to Brown. He said there were not any election ballots in the discarded mail. As investigators combed through the mail, Gurganus said he noticed bills, cards and checks in the piles.

“Everything you would normally see in your mailbox in a week’s period is what was on the ground there,” Gurganus said.

“Whoever was doing this wasn’t looking to go through the mail — they just wanted to dump it and go,” he added.

Gurganus posted his discovery on Facebook and the post was shared more than 8,000 times.

In the comments, he found a woman who lives in the area and said her grandson was writing her letters, but she hadn’t been receiving them and was wondering if they might be in the pile.

Brown said the mail was categorized and will be delivered soon, adding that investigators are speaking with people and still working to determine who disposed of the mail. He did not say whether investigators have any leads or whether they believe a postal worker was involved.