A Lakeville couple says they are receiving a growing stack of official letters from Minnesota’s Unemployment Insurance and Paid Family and Medical Leave programs — all addressed to businesses they have never heard of and have never operated from their home.
Despite multiple phone calls and letters to the state, the couple says the mail keeps coming.
Since mid-February, the homeowners say they have received more than 20 official letters from Minnesota’s unemployment and paid leave programs addressed to companies they say have no apparent record of existing.
“We’ve lived here for 22 years,” the homeowner told Alpha News. “We’ve never run a business out of this house. It’s a purely residential neighborhood.”
The first letter arrived Feb. 13, addressed to “STEL Building Materials.” The couple said they had never heard of the company. A search of the Minnesota Secretary of State’s business registry turned up no record of it. An online search yielded no apparent U.S.-based business by that name.
The following day, another unemployment letter arrived. Then came a letter from the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program addressed to the mystery company.
Concerned, the homeowner wrote a formal letter to the state of Minnesota stating that no such business had ever operated from the property and asking that the entry in the state’s system be corrected. The couple also returned the initial letters by certified mail.
But the mail didn’t stop. Instead, it multiplied.
By early March, the couple said they had accumulated roughly a dozen additional letters. More recently, a second business name began appearing on envelopes: “Bukowski Property Management,” which does not appear to be registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State or associated with any identifiable business in online searches.
“At first we thought it was a mistake. But when the letters kept coming — and a second business name showed up — that’s when we became concerned.”
The couple has not opened any of the letters, noting they are not addressed to them. They have instead photographed the envelopes and provided copies to a legislative office after reaching out for help.
Despite contacting state agencies by phone — and being told it could be a simple clerical error or transposed digit — the couple says no one has indicated the address has been flagged or corrected.
“They just said to mark them ‘not at this address’ and return them,” the homeowner said. “But they keep coming.”
Fraud backdrop looms large
The unusual situation unfolds against the backdrop of the state’s ongoing fraud crisis, as well as the rollout of the new Paid Family and Medical Leave program.
The Lakeville couple says they do not know whether the letters tied to their address represent a clerical mistake, a data-entry error or something more serious. But they are concerned their home address could be linked to potential employer accounts without their knowledge.
“We just don’t want our address associated with something fraudulent,” the homeowner said.
Alpha News reached out to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), which oversees both the Unemployment Insurance and Paid Family and Medical Leave programs, for comment but did not receive a response.
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
