Undelivered mail found under leaves

11:55 AM EDT on Friday, August 5, 2005

It's a case of missing mail -- or should we say, found mail. A Louisville postal carrier did let something keep him from his appointed rounds: He dumped more than 100 pieces of mail on Wednesday.

A resident watched the whole thing and called the post office. A new letter carrier tried to bury some of his mail in the brush at 44th and Del Park Terrace. A neighbor saw him and he won't be delivering mail anytime soon.

Envelope corners and sales ads curled up from under a think blanket of leaves when WHAS11 News shot the scene on Wednesday night.

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Marie Forbes watched her new letter carrier hide about 150 pieces of mail, then walk away. "It was right over here it was really covered up really bad," she said. "He had moved branches and everything. He took like five minutes to hide the mail."

It was around 10 o'clock Wednesday morning when Forbes and a friend retrieved the abandoned mail for the US Post Office. "We looked through, it was people's bills and stuff like that," she said. "They stuff might get cut off because they don't have their mail."

"This was a three-week employee having trouble grasping the job," said Louisville Postmaster Steve Gregory. "He made a real inappropriate decision."

Gregory doubts any more mail is hidden. It does not appear that anyone tampered with those letters and circulars.

"It violates the public trust for one thing," says Gregory. "We're trusted with the people's mail. It's something we take seriously. It's supposed to be secure."

"It's a federal offense to do something like that and he should be caught and charged and lose his job for it," says Marie Forbes. Inspectors found the letter carrier, and he subsequently resigned. "Letter carrying's not for everybody," says Gregory.

Meanwhile Marie Forbes is a bit perplexed. "I don't know why he did it," she said. "Maybe he didn't feel like delivering the rest of the mail to everybody." The letter carrier could face criminal charges for hiding the mail. Since he resigned, it's unlikely he'll be prosecuted.

Within that pile of mail, postal workers found three checks. They were treated as Express Mail and delivery immediately. All first class mail was delivered on Thursday as well and advertisements will go out Friday.

If you live between the 4100 and 4300 blocks of West Broadway and believe some of your mail is missing you can call your local post office.