By Mike Pulfer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Put your hands in the air and come out sorting.Or just gather up those convenient white plastic bins and turn them over to your nearest Postal Service employee.

"No questions asked," says Bonni Manies, spokeswoman at Cincinnati's Dalton Avenue mail plant. "We just want 'em back."

Some 19,980,000 of them are missing nationwide. At $3.25 apiece, they're worth $64,935,000.

"The Postal Service is in serious financial straits," Ms. Manies says. "Sixty million here, 60 million there adds up."

In Cincinnati, the system is missing about 3,000 boxes; in Dayton, they need 2,000. Workers have been "begging and borrowing" and, in some cases, using cardboard boxes as temporary substitutes. The holiday glut of mail doesn't help matters.

The Postal Service has declared a national amnesty for tub hoarders and posted pleas in corporate mailrooms.

Amnesty is a good deal. According to United States Code 18-1707, "Maximum penalty for theft or misuse of postal property (is) a $1,000 fine and three years' imprisonment."

The boxes are used legitimately by businesses for pre-sorting mail. That qualifies the businesses for discounts on mailing rates.

But too many people are finding other uses for them outside the realm of mail distribution.

"They're handy," Ms. Manies says. "They're lightweight and durable. And they've got two nice handles. ... People tend to use them for everything."

They are made of corrugated white plastic with wire frames and measure 13 by 18 (top) by 11 inches deep, they're good for books and bottles, tools and toys, files, groceries, even mail.

The government uses them with its automated mail sorters to catch "flat" parcels - including magazines and newspapers.

"Up until a few days ago, we had a bunch of them," said Rick Adams, a mailroom worker at Federated Department Stores, downtown. "Must have been more than 50 of them.

"But we had a big mailing and got rid of most of them," he said.

James Scott, a mailroom employee at General Electric Aircraft Engines, Evendale, says, "We just use what we need for the mail and send them back."

Meanwhile, outside the mailrooms at many local businesses, including The Cincinnati Enquirer, people are using the boxes to clean out their desks and store books and files. Some might even take them home.

"That's one of my pet peeves," says Ms. Manies. "Like people who refuse to use their turn signals ...

"We've been trying to persuade people to return them for the past couple of years. We've taken a light-hearted approach, but this is serious money here," she says.

"We hope it doesn't get to the point where we have to make an example of anybody." She is not aware of anyone ever prosecuted for stealing or misusing a box.

She does not anticipate that getting a lot of boxes back will be a problem.

"There's no penalty or shame," Ms. Manies says. "Just take them to any post office or give them to your letter carrier.

"Drop them at his vehicle and run, if you must."

E-mail mpulfer@enquirer.com