Woman Is Shocked Post Office Won't Hand Over Package Addressed To Her Dog

This is Chaya — a very sweet pup whose owner recently got caught up in a rather bewildering sort of bureaucratic predicament on her behalf.

And it all started with a gift package.

Chaya, a boxerweiler, lives in Sweden with Marie Palmgren and her family.

Earlier this month, Palmgren received a note from her mail carrier that a large parcel had arrived and needed to be picked up at the post office. Turns out, however, it was addressed to Chaya — the contents being a dog toy sent to her by a family friend living abroad.

Little could Palmgren, or anyone else for that matter, have guessed what a headache that would create.

Naturally, Palmgren then headed to the post office to pick up the package.

"I asked them how I should fill out the form, because it said on the notice that the addressee needed to sign and show an ID," Palmgren told The Dodo. "I told them that the person who sent the package wrote Chaya Palmgren, instead of Marie Palmgren, just for fun. And that Chaya was a dog."

Postal employees were oddly unswayed by this added info.

"They still demanded an ID and a signature from Chaya, plus ID and signature from me as the 'helper' to fetch the package," Palmgren said.

Her dog's signature and ID? Palmgren was perplexed — and soon Chaya would be, too.

Palmgren returned home. After digging through some old records, she managed to find a registration document that certified Chaya was her pet. She then loaded her dog up and headed back to the post office.

Surely, Palmgren thought, that would be enough. She was wrong.

"I gave the staff the document, my ID card and the notice. After 15 minutes they returned. They told me that they accepted the document as Chaya’s ID, but they still needed her to sign," Palmgren said.

She and Chaya had to wait outside (no dogs allowed in the post office, apparently) while an employee grabbed — wouldn't you know it — an ink pad.

"They told me they wanted her paw print on the notice, next to my signature," Palmgren said. "So I took Chaya’s paw, put it on the pad and then on the notice."

Here's video of Chaya "signing" the notice, appearing rather puzzled by it all:

After the notice was signed by Chaya, she and Palmgren finally received the package.

Now, you might be thinking this was all some comical charade on the part of the post office employees. Palmgren said that was far from the case.

"The staff was very serious all the time. It wasn’t like a funny thing for them," she said. "Me? I was totally flabbergasted. When I reached the car, I laughed so much that I got a pain in my stomach."

But, hey, at least Chaya got her gift — a neat water fountain toy.

For her, the strange ordeal was really no big deal.

"She is a nice dog, wants to cooperate," Palmgren said.

The story has since spread across Swedish news outlets as an extreme example of the often overly-strict adherence to official policy by government agencies. But folks can't help but be amused. Chaya's gift giver, however, couldn't help but feel bad that her cute package label caused such a problem.

"She wanted to do a kind thing. She was so sorry that it turned into this circus of absurdity," Palmgren said. "But I told her, 'On the contrary — you managed to make so many people laugh!'"