Check’s in the Mail--but Not for Very Long

It’s a common refrain. But it carried a ring of truth when Colette de Pagter knocked on the back door of the Woodland Hills Post Office.

“My check is in the mail,” cried de Pagter, 18, of Woodland Hills.

De Pagter is a Calabasas High School senior who works part time as a receptionist for a Calabasas Park accounting firm.

After leaving work Thursday night, she stopped at a mailbox at Park Sorrento and Park Granada to deposit mail for her employer. By mistake, her $153 payroll check was caught among the envelopes.

De Pagter discovered her error a few minutes later when she stopped at her bank. By the time she retraced her steps to the mailbox, the mail had been picked up.

Postal workers in Calabasas directed her to Woodland Hills, where outlying mail pickups are delivered.

Once there, de Pagter, who needed her money to pay a car repair bill, appealed to postal employees for help. Piled before her were thousands of letters, and more were pouring in.

“They were very nice,” de Pagter said. “Every person who came in with more mail gave me encouraging words. They were all making jokes about finding my check and taking off with it.”

After an hour of searching, a postal worker found the check.

“She was worried, but we knew which collection run it should be in,” said Glen Farinas, a Woodland Hills postal supervisor. “We kept the loose letters together so we could hunt for it.”

Friday, de Pagter said she planned to deposit another stack of company mail on her way to the bank. “This time I’m going to keep the check in my purse until I’m away from the mailbox,” she said.