I have wondered the same thing. The damaged papers in the sealed envelope were needed overseas soon after the event, and I was heading to a different country, so I never followed it up that way. I suspect that, as you mention, its never having reached a mailbox is the killer, but I wonder what the status would be if the stamps had been franked?

I will have to speak with my post office and see about dummying up a decoy. I'm sure it will happen again.

You can come up with a lot of interesting ideas lying awake because the clean garment you packed to sleep in arrives sprinkled with horse poop.