Residents: Postal Service Said Bronx Building's Mailboxes Too High For Carrier
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Residents of a Bronx building say they haven't been getting their mail lately, and they say were told it is all because the postal carrier is too short to reach the mailboxes.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, the mail has been missing for every tenant in the building on Aldus Street. One resident, Lynette Hargrove, came to the local Post Office to find out why and said she was shocked by the supervisor's answer.
"The mail carrier is too short to deliver," Hargrove said.
Hargrove knows the carrier, who several tenants said has been delivering their mail for a year. For some reason two weeks ago, that changed.
Hargrove estimates that she and the mail carrier are the same height -- 5 foot 2 -- and does not understand why the carrier can't reach.
"I suggested a step stool," she said. "They said it was too dangerous for her."
CBS2 found the letter carrier, and Carlin asked her if she could not reach. She declined to comment.
"The Post Office will give you all that information," she said.
The carrier was on the block, but she skipped Hargrove's building. When asked if the tenants there were going to get their mail, she again said, "You're going to have to speak to the Post Office."
So CBS2's Carlin went to the Post Office.
"They're already making a delivery, and it wasn't two and a half weeks," the postal supervisor said. When Carlin noted that the tenants reported otherwise, the supervisor said, "Have a nice day," and shut the door.
Thus, no one could explain why the same carrier who was able to reach suddenly cannot. CBS2 learned a different carrier in a different truck is being tapped to make the delivery.
But the building's owner must lower the mailboxes.
The mailboxes open with a master key and the letters go over the top. The postal regulations say this can be no more than 58 inches from the floor, but a measurement with a tape measure showed the mailboxes in the Aldus Street building are 65 inches up.
The owner, who lives in upstate New York, said he will fix the problem.
But tenants, now getting their mail from a different carrier, wonder if any was lost in the shuffle. They hope they are finally delivered from the mail mess.
The building's owner told CBS2 he just learned from the Postal Service he cannot simply lower the current mailboxes. He has to get brand new ones.
