ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608050062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert Bell turns 62 in December, so he called to get information about Social Security benefits.
He got it. And got it. And got it.
When Bell went to the mailbox outside his Henrico County home Saturday, he pulled out 33 envelopes, all with the same information from the Social Security Administration in Maryland. Bell and his wife, Sue, found four more of the envelopes in their mailbox Tuesday.
``They did a great job in getting it here,'' said Bell, who retired from the state Department of Agriculture in 1991 and works part time at an elementary school cafeteria. ``They said it would take two weeks. It took only five days.''
Tom Margenau of the Social Security Administration said Bell is the first East Coast resident to receive multiple envelopes. Years ago, it happened two or three times on the West Coast.
``The toll-free number handles 60 million calls a year,'' Margenau said. ``Two or three cases of a little computer glitch is obviously not a major problem.''
The federal government spends 35 to 40 cents for each letter, he said.
LENGTH: Short : 33 linesby CNB