Criminal Complaint Against a Postman in Shtip: He Signed in the Recipient's Place, and She Missed Her Appeal Deadlines

A registered letter exists for one reason: to prove that the item reached the right person. In Shtip, according to the police, it was precisely that proof that was forged.

The Shtip police department has filed a criminal complaint against 46-year-old R.M. from Shtip, employed as a postman, on suspicion of "negligent performance of duty". On 7 August 2026 he allegedly failed to deliver a registered letter from the Ministry of Education and Science to a woman, and instead signed her name on the list of delivered items. According to the records, the letter was duly received. In reality, the recipient was never informed of its contents in time.

The consequences are not small. The letter was linked to her application for an internal competition for a mentor-teacher post, and because it was never delivered, she missed the appeal deadlines for exercising her employment rights. A missed deadline in a hiring procedure in education is rarely fixed with an apology.

The Interior Ministry has not said why the postman did it. The criminal complaint states that his actions caused her harm, and any criminal liability will be decided by the competent institutions.

Which leaves the question of how many similar signatures nobody has ever checked - and how many people have lost a deadline and believe the state simply never wrote back.