JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A U.S. Postal Service mail carrier was caught on camera apparently hitting a mailbox at a home on the Northside and then driving off, as if it never happened.
Kenny Van Tassel said it happened Jan. 25 around 7:30 p.m at their home on Golden Eagle Dr. He said his wife was home at the time.
“My wife heard a loud bang,” Van Tassel said. “When I got home, we realized that it was the mailbox that was damaged.”
He said if it weren’t for their surveillance cameras, they probably wouldn’t have found out who damaged the mailbox.
Van Tassel said they contacted the USPS and filed a claim the night the incident happened. With the video evidence, he said he was expecting a quick fix.
“Turned into a lengthy process that doesn’t really have an end in sight,” Van Tassel said.
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More than two weeks later, the mailbox is still broken. Van Tassel said he feels like they’re getting the runaround.
“It just seems like it’s going to drag out and we’ll just end up replacing it ourselves,” Van Tassel said.
He contacted Action News Jax for help. He said he hopes it will help get someone to take action.
“It’s a headache that we would just like to have resolved and taken care of,” Van Tassel said.
Action News Jax reached out to the USPS.
“The U.S. Postal Service delivers to over 156 million addresses, six days a week and we take great care to protect both postal property and customers’ personal property. Unfortunately, rare instances of property damage do occur. We apologize for any inconvenience this incident may have caused for our customer. The Postal Service is governed by specific guidelines regarding tort claims. In this case, we are working with the customer to assist with filing a claim in order to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Regarding employee actions, the Postal Service does not publicly comment on personnel matters, due to privacy concerns. Local postal management will continue to work with the customer to ensure repairs are made, within existing guidelines, in order to reach a fair and equitable resolution.”
Van Tassel said he understands mistakes happen and doesn’t want the employee to get in trouble. He said he just wishes the situation was handled better.
“The USPS who did the damage should fix it and do so in a timely manner,” Van Tassel said.
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