In the Internet age, far fewer people still regularly turn to a paper version of the yellow pages, but that doesn’t mean several companies aren’t still delivering phone books to homes and businesses in Washington every year. We spotted about 5-6 brand new Yellow Books on the sidewalk on 9th Street NW in Shaw (around the corner from DCist HQ) over the weekend, having been delivered to what are clearly boarded up and abandoned buildings (a few of which are those same controversial Shiloh Baptist properties). The books were still there this afternoon, but now soaking wet.

In response to an inquiry from DCist, Yellow Book USA spokesperson John Hartz responded with the following statement:

We are in the process of delivering to the Washington, D.C. market and were not aware of any problems. Since we instruct our directory carriers not to deliver to homes that are empty or abandoned, we would love to have more detail on the locations referenced so that we can address the issue right away. Your readers can also let us know immediately of any problems with the delivery of the D.C. book by calling our toll free number, 1-800-YB-YELLOW.

We took care of giving Yellow Book the details for this block of 9th St., but if you notice other Yellow Books that were delivered to abandoned houses, do your neighbors a favor and call the number above so that the company can take care of it.