It pays to have a good relationship with your mailman — after all, who better to notice when your mail is piling up, or when you haven’t come outside to chat? A mailman in Norfolk, Va. potentially helped save his customer’s life, after realizing he hadn’t stepped out to talk in days and that his mail had just been collecting inside.

The mailman told WAVY-10 News that the man, in his 80s, usually popped out for a bit of a chat every day. When he realized it’d been awhile since they’d talked, he peeked inside the man’s home.

“The only thing I saw was a pile of mail,” he said. “I’m looking in it and that was last week’s mail.” He then knocked, and didn’t get an answer, although the man’s car was in the driveway. So he asked one of the neighbors to call 911.

Rescue crews arrived and went inside the home, where they found the man alive. He had taken a spill in his bedroom and couldn’t move.

“Just knowing someone being on their floor for a week [without food and water] just blew my mind,” said the mailman, who isn’t about to accept a bunch of glowing praise for his part in the rescue.

“I don’t feel that I was a hero,” he said. “I just feel that I was in a particular place and time to help someone out in need.”

*Thanks for the tip, John!

Previously: Comcast Tech Saves Sleeping Customer From Fire

Mailman credited with saving customer [WAVY.com]

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