The mystery of the Indiana Jones mail delivery has been solved.
The University of Chicago received a strange package last week addressed to "Henry Walton Jones, Jr.," who -- for those unfamiliar with the film -- is Indiana Jones. It contained an "incredibly detailed" replica of the journal of Abner Ravenwood, Jones' fictitious mentor who taught at UChicago. The package also had postcards and photos of Marion Ravenwood, Jones' significant other and some "really cool" old fake money.
It turns out the package was never supposed to arrive at the UChicago campus. It was supposed to go from an eBay seller named Paul Charfauros in Guam to a buyer in Italy. On the UChicago Admissions Office Tumblr, they explained what happened:
As some theorized, this did turn out to be the work of “Ravenbar” (real name: Paul, from Guam) on Ebay. After several days we were able to get in touch with Paul, who confirmed with us on Saturday that this was, indeed, his work, but that he did not know how it had gotten to us. Paul contacted us late yesterday to let us know that he had just received a letter (originally we were baffled as to how he got mail on a Sunday, but then we remembered time zones exist) from the USPS sorting service in Honolulu, HI (from a guy who, coincidentally, is also named Paul) stating that the outer package of something he had mailed had been found without its contents at their facility.
Charfauros told them the package was supposed to travel from Guam to a recipient in Italy, but it must have fallen out of its package in Hawaii. "We believe that the post office wrote on our Zip code on the outside of the package and, believing the Egyptian postage was real, sent it our way," they wrote on their Tumblr.
"We wanted to believe it was a student applicant,” Garrett C. Brinker, director of undergraduate outreach, told the New York Times. "That was our romantic version."
UChicago also noted Charfauros let them know that he will make the intended recipient a new journal, and they're allowed to keep this package.
For anyone else who wants a package like this, they're going for about $200 on eBay.
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