Meatloaf isn’t wrong. Some clerk simply spotted your package as a local delivery and pulled it out of the mail stream. You’re extrapolating that instance into a local sorting operation that exists solely in your imagination. USPS has had a hub and spoke system using regional sorting facilities for years. It is a highly automated system that sorts mail using computers and optical character readers.
Did you see my link?
Do you realize this happens all the time with me? I got two today.