[classicman]

Checks, bills and even a college acceptance letter from 2007 were among 20,000 letters found inside the garage of a Philadelphia postal carrier.

When the mailman missed several days of work in April, postal officials went to his Port Richmond home and found tubs and tubs of undelivered and unopened mail.

The postal worker, who has yet to be identified, worked out of the Bustleton station in Northeast Philadelphia. The neighborhood most impacted is located near Castor Avenue and Benton Street.

One of those affected was desperate to receive a $900 check in December 2007. The letter just arrived on Thursday.

"I got mail today from 2007. Paychecks, things like that that I needed. Stuff from the Social Security Administration, I.R.S.," resident Kevin Carpenter said.

Carpenter asked the worker he knew as "Dave the mailman" to be on the lookout for the check.

"I asked Dave and Dave said he hadn't seen it, but as soon as he got it, he would call me," Carpenter explained.

Some of mail found in the postal carrier's home dated back to 1997.

One of the letters that was undelivered was a 2007 acceptance letter from West Chester University. The recipient, who received the letter on Thursday, is now a senior in college.

Investigators have yet to question the mailman because they have not been able to locate him.

However, delaying mail and stealing mail are both federal offenses.