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ATTLEBORO

City residents Michael and Stephanie Stepka bought their home about a year ago, but they're still not sure where they live.

Neither are delivery people from FedEx or UPS or family members and friends.

While constantly giving directions to package services and anyone who wants to visit is annoying, they're worried cops and firefighters won't find them if there's an emergency, and that could be more than annoying - it could be dangerous.

The problem is simple. Well, maybe not. The Stepkas live at the end of a road labeled Coleman Avenue, but their address is 209C Wilmarth St.

How can that be? City officials aren't sure exactly, but acknowledge it resulted from some shoddy administrative work about 15 years ago when Coleman was accepted as a city street, along with almost 300 other public ways in a massive effort to gain street mileage to increase state aid for road repairs.

Stephanie said city officials have been "very nice" and have tried to help, but in the end she and her husband were stuck with the Wilmarth address.

The city is willing to change the Stepkas' house number to distinguish it from 209 Wilmarth, which also has frontage on Coleman, but the Stepkas were hoping to get the street address changed - to Coleman, where they appear to live.

"I'm not trying to blame anybody," Stephanie said. "I just want my address fixed. We constantly have to explain to people how to get here."

More importantly, the Stepkas are worried that public safety personnel won't be able to find them when time is crucial.

"I'm not projecting any emergencies," Stephanie said. "But I'm pretty sure if there was an emergency, I won't have my head on straight and wouldn't be able to explain where my house is."

The Stepkas' home is one of three built off Wilmarth in the 1950s. Their house, which is the farthest from Wilmarth, was built in 1956, according to assessors records and sits at the end of Coleman hundreds of feet from Wilmarth.

A second house, 209 Wilmarth, also was built in 1956, and also fronts on Coleman.

A third house, 101 Coleman, the only home on Coleman with a Coleman address, was built in 1953. None have frontage on Wilmarth. Officials aren't sure why only one home was changed to a Coleman address in 1994 when the street was accepted, but only one was and now they're saying it's better to leave well enough alone.

Fire Chief Ronald Churchill, who has been to the neighborhood to discuss the problem with the Stepkas, said the department is well aware of the situation.

"I don't know how to resolve the street problem," he said. "But right now we know how to get there."

City Councilor Bill Bergevine, who represents the area as Ward 4 councilor, described the Stepka's situation as a "Catch-22," but said the Wilmarth address could get them help faster than a Coleman address.

"It's weird, but it's safer for them because if firefighters or police are looking for a Wilmarth address, they'll be on Wilmarth, and will be looking in the right area," Bergevine said.

To help them, the Stepkas bought a reflective green sign pointing the way to 209C Wilmarth and installed it on a pole above the Coleman Avenue sign.

But that still doesn't help someone who knows 209C Wilmarth is at the end of Coleman, if Coleman can't be found on a map.

And a number of maps do not show the proper location of Coleman.

One edition of the Arrow Street Atlas along with the city's official map show Coleman coming off Steere Street near Park Street, but it doesn't.

That Coleman is a paper street, one that doesn't actually exist.

If public safety personnel unfamiliar with the area consulted either map, they'd waste a lot of time looking for Coleman off Steere.

Public safety workers from a neighboring town providing mutual aid would likely have a harder time.

At least one map, Google Maps, shows Coleman in its correct spot.

So, conceivably, the people who live in 101 Coleman could be in more danger than the Stepkas if the right map were not used.

However, 209C Wilmarth does not come up on Google at all and 209 Wilmarth, surprisingly enough, is placed on Wilmarth by Google rather than Coleman, so Google wouldn't be a good way to find the Stepkas.

Keith Godfrey, a resident of 101 Coleman for 26 years, said he doesn't know why his house is the only one out of three houses on the street with a Coleman address, but he's not concerned about the confusion.

"I'm not worried at all," he said. "The fire department knows exactly where we are."

Meanwhile, Bergevine said he and other city officials wanted to fix the address and fix the street which is narrow and literally nothing more than a driveway.

But that's where the mess gets worse.

The city doesn't own the land on which Coleman is located.

While Coleman doesn't meet the specifications for an accepted city street, the city can't correct it without expensive land surveys and eminent domain takings, he said.

With the city struggling financially it's not likely that such a project would be undertaken anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the mystery remains about the odd little lost street.

"Nobody can seem to account for how it got to be Coleman Avenue," said Bergevine, who did have a theory. "I think somebody knew somebody and a sign got put up."