Human mail
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Human mail is the transportation of a person through the postal system, usually as a stowaway. While rare, there have been some reported cases of people attempting to travel through the mail. This form of travel is both illegal and highly dangerous, with cases leading to prosecution and serious injury.
More common, at least in popular fiction, is the mailing of a part of a person, often a kidnap victim.
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[edit] Real occurrences
- Henry Box Brown, an African-American slave from Virginia, successfully escaped in a shipping box sent north to the free state of Pennsylvania.[1]
- Charles McKinley shipped himself from New York to Dallas, Texas in a box. He was attempting to visit his parents and wanted to save on the air fare by charging the shipping fees to his former employer. However, he was discovered during the final leg of his journey having successfully travelled by plane.[2]
- A German prisoner escaped from a prison by climbing into a box in the mail room which was picked up by a courier.[3]
[edit] In popular culture
- Flat Stanley, a 1964 children's book by Jeff Brown, sees the eponymous main character squashed flat in an accident and subsequently sent via air mail.
- The plot of one episode of Beavis and Butthead includes the pair trying to mail themselves.[4]
- The Velvet Underground song "The Gift" from the album White Light/White Heat has a grisly take on the perils of human mail.
- In the movie George of the Jungle, George ships himself via UPS back to the jungle from San Francisco.
- In the TV series Malcolm in The Middle, Reese attempts to ship himself to China, but is instead sent on a bogus journey by his brother without leaving the garage.
- In the TV series Firefly, in the episode "The Message", a former compatriot of Mal and Zoe mails himself to them so they would protect him from people to whom he owed money.
- In the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben" of the TV series The Prisoner, Number Six's escape attempt includes being shipped in a wooden box from Poland to London.
- In the TV series Garfield and Friends, Garfield often attempts to mail his nuisance Nermal to Abu Dhabi.[episode needed]
- In the TV series Trailer Park Boys Cory and Trevor are mailed, along with a large quantity of marijuana to a Snoop Dogg show.[episode needed]
- In the movie Hudson Hawk, Bruce Willis' character is rendered unconscious, and wakes up in a packing material-filled shipping crate in another country.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Henry Box Brown, b. 1816 Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself – full text of the Narrative. Accessed 30 March 2010.
- ^ (10 September 2003) "Federal charge filed against man who shipped himself in crate" at the U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed 3 January 2006.
- ^ Adams, Cecil (30 December 2005) "Special Delivery: Can a live person be packed in a shipping crate and mailed?" at Straight Dope. Accessed 3 January 2006.
- ^ Inmate escapes German jail in box at BBC News. Accessed 5 January 2009.
