Christmas card for English couple has arrived in S.C. for 2 years | The State

Dennis Donatelli keeps getting the wrong Christmas card in the mail.

For the second consecutive year, Dennis and his wife, Kathy, have received a Christmas card addressed to a couple in England from a couple in New Hampshire. The Donatellis live at 19 Park Circle in Bluffton, and the Bushells live at 19 Park Crescent in Brighton, Sussex, England.

"Last year, we took it over to the post office and had it forwarded on to them," Dennis Donatelli said, laughing. "It keeps showing up in my mailbox each year. How can that happen two years in a row?"

The U.S. Postal Service doesn't release statistics on either lost mail or mail delivered to the wrong address. More than 96 percent of first class mail - such as Christmas cards and letters - gets delivered on time and to the right address, according to the Postal Service, but the service handles more than 203 billion pieces of mail in a year. The remaining percentage points indicate a lot of mail winds up in unintended places, such as the Donatellis' mailbox.

The Donatellis said they don't mind forwarding the card to the Bushells again, but this year they might try to give both the addressers and the addressees a phone call.

"It almost makes (me) feel like I'm somehow supposed to know these people or something," Dennis Donatelli said.