Louis Kavaratzis was shocked when he received a phone call from Canada Post on Monday telling him that a piece of certified mail, containing a certified check for $301,560, turned up weeks after he disappeared.
“I felt a great sense of relief, but I’m still very frustrated. I didn’t get any sleep last night,” Kavaratzis said Tuesday. “[But] “I won’t rest until the cash is actually in the bank.”
The missing envelope contained money left to Kavaratzis in his late father’s will. He was sent from his father’s estate by his brother, George Kavaratzis, by certified mail on July 25 from Campbellford, Ontario, to Ayer’s Cliff, Que. But the check apparently disappeared, and the brothers spent almost every day since then trying to locate it with Canada Post.
After Breaking: reported on his story last week, Kavaratzis says the local post office in Ayer’s Cliff called him at 6:30 p.m. Monday and told him they searched the office again and found the missing envelope behind a drawer reserved for certified mail.
“When they took out the drawer, they found my certified mail… [that] it had supposedly fallen to the bottom of the drawer,” Louis said.
He says he ran to the post office as soon as he got the call to retrieve the envelope.
“I was shocked, I didn’t know what to say. I looked at it, opened it in front of them to make sure it was the check.”
Missing check found on Monday
In an email sent to Breaking: on Tuesday, Canada Post confirmed that the check was delivered to Louis on Monday afternoon, but did not provide further details about why it had disappeared.
Canada Post had said that when they were informed of the issue, they conducted an “extensive search” of their facilities.
The Crown corporation previously apologized to the brothers in a statement for the “unfortunate and frustrating delivery experience.”
In Ayer’s Cliff, mail is delivered to residents’ mailboxes located inside the Canada Post Office. Louis received a notice in his mailbox on August 3 that he had registered mail for retrieval, but said that when he went to the counter to pick it up, he had disappeared.
Thinking he had lost more than $300,000 when the certified mail apparently disappeared, Kavaratzis, 57, said the lost inheritance would ruin his retirement plans.
But now that he finally has the check in his hand, he says he plans to deposit it as soon as possible.
‘Why didn’t you look there before?’
His brother, George, said that while he was happy to hear the check had been located, he wondered why it wasn’t discovered in the initial searches of the facility.
“Unbelievable, what a relief,” he told Breaking: on Tuesday. “I’m very happy for my brother, because he’s getting the money from him.
“To be honest, it seems a little suspicious to me. Why didn’t you look there before?”
Before discovering the check had been found, he said Canada Post sent him a check refunding him $12.22.
“I guess that was his way of apologizing.”
George, who is the executor of his father’s estate, said he initially chose to send the check via certified mail because it provides confirmation that Canada Post received the item and proof of delivery by requiring the recipient’s signature. Now, he says he is reconsidering using the delivery method to avoid future situations like this.
