15th Anniversary: Weirdest POOP to Land in Wired's Mailbox

Steve · #1 (**permalink**) 11-11-2008

: During the nine years of Wired's Return to Sender contest, we received some weird stuff in the mail: broken hard drives, a 5-foot felt "long tail," a wooden DNA helix, and an 8-track player containing an Engelbert Humperdinck tape. The rules called for readers to send us any mailable object; if it came in an envelope or a box, it was disqualified. Winners had a photo of their entry published and received—drumroll, please—a Wired T-shirt. Oh, and immortal glory.
The most prolific contestant was Barry Wood, a 50-year-old government GIS spe******t from Vero Beach, Florida. Wood had actually been running his own contest for years, encouraging friends to flummox the Postal Service by sending unusual items he called "permissible objects of postability," or POOP. Once he discovered Wired's contest, he sent us a dozen pieces of POOP, including a mailbox, a conch shell (both winners), buoys, and a pink plastic flamingo. He shelled out nearly $30 to mail an inflatable palm tree, which turned up still inflated. (Sadly, it didn't stay that way, as you can see in the archival video, circa 2006, embedded below.) One year he spent $4,000 on POOP, "but I really didn't care," Wood says, "because sending POOP is my hobby, I mean obsession."

: Digital Screen, appeared in Wired Issue 8.08, August 2000.

: Macintosh SE, appeared in Wired Issue 8.11, November 2000.

: Etch a Sketch, appeared in Wired Issue 9.10, October 2001.

: Bra, appeared in Wired Issue 10.03, March 2002.

: Guitar, appeared in Wired Issue 10.04, April 2002.

: Peeps, appeared in Wired Issue 10.07, July 2002.

: Bicycle, appeared in Wired Issue 10.09, September 2002.

: High heel shoe, appeared in Wired Issue 11.01, January 2003.

: Coconut, appeared in Wired Issue 11.04, April 2003.

: Duct tape, appeared in Wired Issue 11.07, July 2003.

: Cellphone, appeared in Wired Issue 12.02, February 2004.

: Surfboard, appeared in Wired Issue 12.08, August 2004.