Mail Carrier Gets Probation For Burying Your Junk Mail In His Backyard
"Mailman Steve," as he's known to the children on his route, got 3 years probation yesterday for failing to deliver years worth of junk mail that was found stacked in his garage and buried in his backyard. He'll also have to pay a $3,000 fine and serve 500 hours of community service.
Some consider "Mailman Steve" an anti-junk mail superhero -- but it seems that Mr. Padgett was just overwhelmed.
It wasn't a conscious stand against waste or a junk mail protest that spurred Padgett to hold onto the mailers, according to Andrew McCoppin, his attorney. Rather, it was the inability to meet the demands of a job in a growing part of the county while contending with heart problems and complications from his diabetes, McCoppin wrote in a memo in advance of the hearing.
Not sorting and delivering the third-class mailings became a way to save time and make sure other mail got delivered on time.
Padgett could have received jail time for his actions, which were discovered when utility workers spotted the undelivered mail at his home. The U.S. Postal Service did not receive a single complaint about the missing junk mail, some of which dates back to 1999.
"I don't think he was being malicious," Shelley Cole, a resident of Apex's Jamison Park subdivision, told the News & Observer. "We got all the mail that we needed to get."
'Mailman Steve' gets probation [News & Observer]
Judgment day arrives for 'Mailman Steve' [News & Observer]
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Comments:
He has to do community service?
Wasn't burying the junk mail a community service in it's self?
hate junk mail so much, any time I get any I just put it in the outgoing mail part. (We have "Super Boxes" here with a ton of compartments for each person, then one mail slot at the top for out going)
@WEGGLES90: My thoughts exactly. I'd say he can transfer to Michigan any time, but I don't know how long the poor guy would last in our climate.
What a shame. Maybe some environmental group or something will be able to help pay his fine. 95% of all the mail I get goes right in the trash.
The community agrees with you exo. The folks on his route loved him and many were willing to go to court in his defense.
@WEGGLES90: You could argue that, but technically it is still mail theft, which is what he was charged with.
The united states post office is having money problems right now. They should offer a service, $5 a month to filter your mail, and recycle the spam. I'd pay.
MAILMAN STEVE YOU ARE MY HERO. A perfect combo a lazy federal employee that acomplishes a good thing. Now if we can just find a dot employee who will just give you your licence and forget the red tape and next line.
one man's junk is another man's backyard
@Bladefist: I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with you. Obama really did cause change!
sorry, couldn't help myself.
Did he compost it?
If so, he deserves a medal.
My junkmail goes straight into my outdoor wood furnace for incineration. Not the most environmentally friendly approach but I refuse to have people mail me garbage to manage and haul to the transfer station.
I wonder if they're going to try to deliver the backlog of junk or just trash it. But if they were to trash any of it, would they become guilty of the same crime?
@mbz32190: You could at least recycle it.
Anything with my name on it gets shredded and recycled. Once I move back into a house I'll be using it for compost.
@Bladefist: They get more money from spammers.
A paying customer is a paying customer. If it weren't for spam the USPS would shut down.
this is exactly one reason some carriers don't bother delivering this g.d. spam. I do a mail route, and whenever I deliver to this apartment complex that PAYS the timewarner cable bill for their residents, all the residents throw it in the outgoing mail. This annoys me because there is a SECOND mail carrier, who in turn hands all of that damn spam right back to me to redeliver as there is no return-to-sender endorsement, and even if the spam doesn't have YOUR name on it, it does say 'OR CURRENT RESIDENT', which means you. PEOPLE PLEASE, THROW THE SPAM AWAY, DO NOT PUT IT IN OUTGOING, IT ANNOYS THE PISS OUT OF US.
In my opinion, he did the Community a Service by hording all the junk mail.
Vigilante Mailman. Get. It. Gurl.
@Lucky225:
Calm down, mate. Either quit your job or adjust your actions. My job has its blow-ee parts but so what.
@exo: I think I'd go so far as to call him an American hero. It would have been nice if he had recycled it though...
I have no problem with it, just don't be pissed at me when the spam keeps getting re-delivered as you keep putting it in the outgoing. I hate spam just as much as the next person, but the outgoing box is not a trash can, and since the spam is still addressed to you, it's gonna keep coming back. Just as you're annoyed by receiving it, we're annoyed by having to deliver it, but apparently if we don't, someone's gonna b1tch and try to put us in federal prison.
I was lucky enough that the previous tenant at my place decided to skip out on her bills and not leave any kind of forwarding address with the post office. That means that not only do I get all of my mail and junk mail, I ALSO get all of her mail and semi-junk mail. Despite being told multiple times (and my mailbox being clearly labeled) they keep giving it to me. For the past month I have started to put absolutely everything without my name on it in the outgoing mail slot until they get the hint.
As cute as this story is, companies and charities paid for a service. Some of these 'Mass Mailings' might have been from worthy charities. He wasn't noble he was lazy. He wasn't trying to help the community. Even his attorney didn't try for the Robin Hood defense.
@Bladefist: ...find some other mass mailers to have on contract? Become a bank (don't a couple of countries do this already)?
So where can we donate to this guy's legal fund?
Depends on where you live, if you're in an apartment complex you could have 2 different mail carriers, one that delivers, one that picks up the outgoing. If you are not endorsing the letter with "RETURN TO SENDER, UNDELIVERABLE ASS ADDRESSED" OR "RTS/UAA" OR "UNABLE TO FORWARD/UTF" the receiving carrier could be taking all of the outgoing mail, including yours, right back to the post office to be redelivered the following day, which will go right back to your delivering carrier who probably won't remember that he already delivered this to you yesterday. As people move IN *AND* OUT of apartments quite frequently, we must deliver all mail to your apartment number unless we KNOW that that particular name is no longer there, so the easiest solution is to write THEIR last name below yours on the box and draw a line through it indicating they are no longer there, THAT will let him/her know not to deliver the mail for that name to your box.
Even though he did a nice thing, this still constitutes mail fraud. And how is he to know what exactly is spam and what may be an extremely important bill or notification?
...I hate spam just as much as the next person, but the outgoing box is not a trash can...
@Lucky225: I wish my mailbox wasn't a trashcan.
@SarcasticDwarf: Ensure that you mark it "NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS" before you chuck it in the mail slot, or they'll just redeliver. Seriously.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: the phrase "to so-and-so or current resident" is a good clue. Also, a flimsy notebook of papers covered in takeout chinese and pizza ads is a pretty damned good clue.
Spam is presort standard, bills are first class mail. A lot of the times the spam is bounded and separate from all the other mail we have to deliver, that is probably what he didn't deliver.
Screw that, we should apply to Bush and demand a pardon before he gets out of office.
@Lucky225: I have the same problem as this guy, only I'm getting mail for like 5 different families who no longer live there. What is the best method to stop this?
@Lucky225: I actually did write that the person no longer lives here on every single piece of mail for about three weeks after moving in. Additionally, I left a note in the mailbox and the mailbox label inside reads "LASTNAME only at XXX." I would assume that between all those things they would have figured it out. Oh, and the same person picks up the mail as delivers it. I live in a mobile home part with a centralized set of mailboxes.
It has tapered off quite a bit but I still get the occasional item (mostly collection notices).
For the past month I have started to put absolutely everything without my name on it in the outgoing mail slot until they get the hint.
@SarcasticDwarf: I thought that's what you're supposed to do with mail going to the wrong address.
Technically, he can put in jail 2 years for each one of those mail crates or fined like 20k per. Lucky225, do you know off the top of your head?
Anyway, this guy got lucky. He could have gone to Federal PMITA prison.
As wonderful as he is, companies paid a lot of money for their mail to be delivered. If he really had health problems, there were other avenues besides taking matters into his own hands. He could have talked to HR or eaten a low-carb diet.
WOW, well in that case I don't know what to tell you, your route carrier must just be so lazy that he doesn't care to even check :(
@exo:
write all 5 of those names or try to catch the carrier when he's delivering and explain the problem to them.
If all else fails you can rent a private mail box, that is what I personally do, since the mail is delivered to someone who knows only you are renting that box, they will only put in mail for you to that box. I know it's not the best solution as it costs you money, and your carrier should know just not to deliver when those names are present, but I personally do this because hey, when you move, even if you put a change of address in, some mail falls through the cracks, and the next person is going to be getting your mail. With the private mail box, as long as you live in the same area, no matter how many times you move, your address stays the same, and you only get YOUR mail. (Dont get a post office box, b/c you'll run into the same problem.. you have to get a private mailbox, they cost more, but you can get UPS/fedex deliveries too)
Smells fishy.
Since when does a 'utility worker' give a rats ass?
@Lucky225: You wouldn't believe the hassle I have to endure in order to return an "UNDELIVERABLE ASS". This is what I get for wanting my mail addressed to "UNBELIEVABLE ASS"!
@Suttin:
I don't know off the top of my head, I'm a private independent contractor for a rural area, I'm not a federal employee. But yea, those crates are property of the USPS as well.
I think we should all pitch in and each send this man a dollar (or 5) to help him pay the fine. Maybe the press that this would generate would give the powers that be a subtle hint as to what we all think of junk mail.
meh, presort standard is only like 7 cents/piece. They get a bulk rate. :D But yes, they did pay for it to be delivered. What annoys me though is when they send bulk mail to an entire apartment complex that they know already provides their service, like timewarner cable delivers bulk to this apartment complex that is already paying for the residents to have tv and internet, so their 'tripple play for $99.99/mo' bulk that they deliver really isn't realing them in any new customers when everyone who lives there is already a customer and doesn't pay anything as it's included in the resident's rent.
@frodo_35:
Exactly. How about those Tax Attorneys start going to sleep instead of auditing middle America?
@nataku83:
Then he would have been busted in '99 when the recycling center would have wanted to know where he was getting all this mail. :/
@zigziggityzoo:
Some of the stuff you get CAN'T be recycled. Paper that has too high a gloss/waxy print can't be recycled. AFAIK credit cards can't be recycled. The plastic bits that function as a "window" on some envelopes may or may not be recyclable.
He can come work my route. I'll even tip him