MESQUITE, Texas (CBS11) – Resident in a southwest Mesquite neighborhood are furious after finding hundreds of pieces of mail in a gutter.
Brenda Tisdale was walking her dogs when she noticed a few clean, white pieces of paper in the drain.
“I was thinking, ‘that’s where all of our mail has gone,’” said Tisdale.
dumped mail (Jeff Paul – CBS11)
She said she found hundreds of sealed envelopes of undelivered mail teetering toward the sewer. There were stacks of new mail and some were still rubber-banded in groups.
“It would have went on down to the river,” said Tisdale. “Nobody would have ever known.”
Resident Audrey Carter said her neighborhood has experienced mail-delivery problems over the last year. She and other claimed to have outstanding, missing mail.
“Mail not running for days. Maybe at 7 or 8 o’clock at night. Torn mail. I have found mail on the neighbor’s lawn,” said Carter.
But Thursday, Carter said their postal problems stooped to a new low.
“It was as if somebody just took a tray or something and just dumped it straight in,” said Carter.
dumped mail (Jeff Paul – CBS11)
The women are not just worried about missing out on important bills, checks and letter. They feel had someone else found the mail, all of their personal information could have been stolen.
“Now it makes me want to look in each gutter that I pass by,” said Tisdale.
As far as who is responsible, they are not sure where to point the finger of blame. The feel someone is responsible for dumping their deliveries and said it was no accident.
“Shame on you,” said Tisdale. “I don’t know how they can sleep at night.”
The U.S. Postal Service released the following statement:
At this time we can confirm the USPS-OIG is responding to an allegation regarding deliverable mail which was found unattended in the Mesquite, TX area. The USPS OIG considers the aforementioned allegation to be a very serious matter. When these types of allegations are made, USPS OIG Special Agents vigorously investigate these matters. It is important to note that an allegation is merely an accusation. All persons are presumed innocent unless otherwise adjudicated by a court of law.
The U.S. Postal Service employs more than 625,000 employees and is the largest civilian federal workforce in the country. This type of alleged behavior within the Postal Service is not tolerated and the overwhelming majority of Postal Service employees, which serve the public, are honest, hardworking, and trustworthy individuals who would never consider engaging in any type of criminal behavior.
At this time, no additional information related to this investigation is available for public release due to Privacy Act considerations and the ongoing status of the USPS OIG’s investigation.