It’s not unusual for bike messengers to deliver manila envelopes filled with paperwork or occasional boxes. But the assignments can sometimes be downright strange. Bike messengers Rene Cudal and Augie Montes recall their unforgettable deliveries.
Hardest
A 7-foot-long, 1-foot-wide canister wrapped in pink Bubble Wrap weighing 50 pounds.
“I thought I looked like Wile E. Coyote with the rocket pack on his back,” Cudal said.
Smallest
A postage stamp-sized Post-It with a logo. “I was worried I’d lose it or use it as scrap paper,” Cudal said.
Craziest
Underwear. Montes was called to a downtown hotel on Wacker Drive to pick up a manila envelope from a man and deliver it to a woman at a law firm. When he took the package out to deliver it, he noticed the envelope wasn’t sealed very well and had come open. “Part of what was in there was coming out and I went to shove it back in and seal the envelope when I realized it was this woman’s underwear,” he said.
Weirdest
Pumped breast milk. A few years ago, Montes picked up an envelope at a downtown law firm that had some kind of liquid in it. After calling his dispatcher, he found out what it was: breast milk. He delivered it to a nanny at an Old Town residence. Montes recalled his reaction at the time: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
