#1: Slave mailed to freedom
Henry Brown claimed to a "heavenly vision" to mail himself to a place where there were no slaves. On March 29, 1849 Brown tucked himself into a wooden crate and the 200lb box was shipped to the Philadelphia home of abolitionist James Miller McKim 27 hours later.Â
#2: Small animals and insects
These include bees, scorpions, chickens, animals smaller than 20 inches, and fish.
#3: A bank
In 1916, William H. Coltharp was going to build a brick bank in Vernal, Utah. The bricks he wanted were 127 miles away in Salt Lake City, and he calculated the best way to send them all 80,000 was via US mail and it worked! However, this would be impossible now.
#4: Sending bricks as a form of protest
This practice is still a method of protest: recently in England, opponents of the UKIP (UK Independence Party) sent bricks (amongst other things) in pre-paid envelopes, which apparently is still legal there.
#5: Kids
In mid-January of 1913, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beauge of Glen Este, Ohio realized it would be cheaper to send their son to visit his grandmother via parcel post than buying a standard rail ticket. They paid 15 cents in stamps, and "insured" him for $50. The Postmaster quickly outlawed the practice, but people kept skirting the rules, including sending a 14-pound baby to grandma. Luckily, in 1915 this all stopped.
#6: A Ski, a Hammer and a Box of Smelly Fish as Part of an “Experiment”.
Some pranksters sent a variety of different items categorized as valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, pointless, suspicious, and disgusting to see which ones would be delivered. These included a ski, a human tooth, a helium balloon, rotten fish in a box, and a fresh coconut.
#7: The “World's Smallest Postal Service”
This entry is cute (and legal). A company called Leafcutter, dubbed "The World's Smallest Postal Service", hand-creates tiny letters, packages, and invitations that are then delivered via standard mail.
#8: Creepy letters
In Circleville, OH (pop 13,000) starting in 1976. Residents from all walks of life began receiving these strange, missives in written block letters accusing them of various misdeeds. No one could figure out who they were coming from.
#9: A drone
A college student ordered a weightlifting bench, but when the packages arrived via UPS, there was an additional box, also addressed to him. It turns out the drone was non-military and used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It is not known who sent him the drone.
#10: A live cat
In New York City, from 1897 up until 1953, mail was sent via a complex series of pneumatic tubes, whisking cylinders full of mail at 35 mph to its various destinations. No one knows how the cat ended in there, but was unharmed.
