And, without even a thank-you, a number of the checks were cashed by their unintended recipients.

"It was a strange set of circumstances that all came together," said Ron Anderson, customer relations coordinator for Portland's postmaster. Anderson hastened to add that the fluke has been fixed.

The foul-up was apparently a case of new world technology colliding with small town idiosyncrasy.

For decades, residents in this small, rural county addressed any mail destined for a county office simply to the Columbia County Courthouse, St. Helens, OR. They would include the Zip code, but no street address. It was assumed that a letter carrier could find the courthouse in a town of 10,000.

That continued to work despite an end to local sorting of mail about a year ago. But the recently installed sorting software apparently placed more importance on a street address than U.S. postal officials realized. Anderson said that in most cases, the Zip code overrode the discrepancy, but in some instances the computer deemed courthouse mail as foreign.

During the past several months, a few pieces of mail addressed to the county counsel, commissioners and other departments arrived after detouring to the South American country, said County Commissioner Rita Bernhard.

That seemed curious but didn't alarm anyone as the first tax notices were shipped out in October. The Nov. 15 due date came and went with few returned, said Ruth Baker, the county's director of finance and taxation. Several weeks later, a few residents who were reconciling bank statements called to ask why their tax payments weren't cashed.

That's when county officials realized how many people who normally pay taxes on time were listed as delinquent. Baker said the county took the unusual step of mailing out 1,400 late notices Dec. 17 to taxpayers who normally meet the November deadline. Those notices triggered more than 200 calls from puzzled taxpayers, Baker said.

"People are panicked," Baker said.

The fiasco has caused turmoil for one small Scappoose company that had its check cashed.

"It's been a real pain," said Margi Williams, spokeswoman for Custom Metal Fab Inc.

The sheet metal fabrication plant was forced to close its existing bank accounts and open new ones to protect against theft after its tax payment was cashed at the Bank of Beirut and Arab Countries, headquartered in Lebanon, Williams said. She declined to give the amount of the check.

Baker said the county knows of two checks that were cashed -- one check for $1,200 at a retail store in Florida and another for $3,000 in a foreign country. A Midwest mortgage company blocked an attempt to cash a third check in Mexico. A Washington company sent three checks numbered in sequence. The middle check made it to the courthouse, but the two others ended up in Lakeland, Fla.

Anderson said he's unsure how much mail bound for the Columbia County Courthouse ended up in South America. He has no idea why some mail apparently reached other destinations.

He said the U.S. Postal Service office in Washington, D.C., was notified of the problem so it is not repeated in other parts of the country, and the software can be adjusted so it no longer automatically routes mail overseas. The county has assigned the courthouse a street address for future correspondence.

Bernhard said that since the discovery of the wayward mail, the county is asking residents to make sure that if their checks were cashed, it was by the county. Otherwise, officials suggest stopping payment on the original check and mailing a new one.

Bernhard said the county is also not issuing the normal late penalty for people who can prove they mailed their check on time.

"I think people are confused, and we're confused," she said. You can reach Jonathan Nelson at 503-366-3372 or by e-mail at jnelson@ados.com.

Oregonian

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2002