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With the recent igniting of two devices in Maryland state office buildings and one in a D.C. post office, suspicious packages are back in the news. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has released a list potential red flags for your mail, including unknown powders, strange odors, and protruding wires. The List got in touch with Mike, a former FedEx manager, for some insider info on the world of packages. In his 24 years of experience, Mike picked up a few bits of wisdom about the suspicious, illegal, and strange packages Americans try to ship.

1. Americans reuse boxes until the cardboard disintegrates

   Mike laughs when asked about packages “sealed with excessive amount of tape,” as he saw a number of people “trying to get all the good of the box.” Occasionally packages were rejected for excessive tape. “When someone had an old box that they’d used about ten times and it’s falling apart,” he says, “then they might be excessive.”

2. American drug dealers know FedEx

   Traffickers of illicit substances have long turned to FedEx. Why? “Because we were so reliable. You could ship a box of cocaine, package it up real good, and it’s there by 10:30 in the morning with a signature.” Reports of drug dealers using the company don't appear on the record until the 1980s, but FedEx has previously reported seizing 16,000 illegal packages from 1980 to 1995. Drug dealers continue to choose the carrier despite decades of stings and arrests.

3. Americans ship stinky packages

   Marijuana and nail polish remover being two of the most pungent, in Mike’s experience. “Nail polish remover, yeah, when you get something like that in a closed-up container in an aircraft, that’s deadly,” Mike says. “I’ve noticed a few of those over the years, leaking. Whew. That’s tough.”

4. Americans overestimate the strength of brown paper

   The biggest mistake people make, Mike says, is packaging too lightly. “We’ve had people send breakable things wrapped in brown paper,” he says. “It’s no good. It needs to be in a sturdy cardboard box, cushioned, with tape securely on the outside.”

5. Americans know their state codes!

   Mike can’t recall ever seeing a made-up state code, like TE for Tennessee.

6. Americans aren’t shy about shipping sex toys

   Mike hesitates over sharing his funniest package story, saying it’s “not anything you’d want to put in the newspaper, I’d think.” The List reminds him that this is the Internet, and he relents. One day, Mike was called over to handle a package that had fallen open during unloading. “It was called a foot-long double dong,” he says. After a good laugh, Mike had to repackage the special delivery.