POSTAL SERVICE PAYCHECKS LOST IN MAIL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 2, 1993                   TAG: 9301020066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short
POSTAL SERVICE PAYCHECKS LOST IN MAIL
The postal service temporarily lost its own mail, which contained this week's paychecks for about 2,600 postal employees in the Hampton Roads area.
"We're sure that irony will not be lost on folks," said Bruce Threatte, finance director at the post office in Norfolk, before the checks turned up Thursday.
The checks were airmailed Tuesday from the U.S. Postal Data Center in Minneapolis but were delayed somewhere along the way to Virginia, postal officials said.
The checks arrived in Norfolk about 5 p.m. Thursday, said Jack Odom, a shift superintendent. That was about two days later than expected and too late for employees to get to a bank before the holiday.
Nobody seems to know where the checks had been.
Jeff Weber, supervisor of the disbursing office at the Minneapolis data center, said the paychecks had been put aboard a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit as first-class airmail Tuesday morning.
In Detroit, they were transferred to Flight 1456 to Norfolk. Northwest Airlines officials said that flight was canceled.
Hundreds of Norfolk postal employees were lining up to get their paychecks, Threatte said Thursday. "I have a steady stream in my office. But everybody who wants to get paid today will get paid."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB