Post Office Nixes Delivery To Some Brooklyn Residents With Low Mail Slots In Doors
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Some Brooklyn residents with mail slots in their doors are not getting their mail.
Hundreds of Borough Park residents were first told by their local carrier that their mail slots are too low and later received letters from their local post office saying that their mailboxes are not in compliance and need to be relocated, according to Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn).
Some Brooklyn Residents Stop Getting Mail Because Of Low Mail Slots
"My carrier has brought to my attention of his safety and I cannot afford for him to get injured," the letter read. "We are not trying to cause any unnecessary expense but we need this corrected."
Residents were told their mail won't be delivered until the mailboxes are fixed. Many residents said they've had to wait in hour-long lines at the post office and Hikind said some were warned that if they don't correct the doors, their mail will be returned to the sender.
Dr. Helmatta Palmer has lived on 46th Street for 40 years and has never had any problems receiving her mail until recently when her carrier complained.
"He said there's a chance that he might fall," Palmer told 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa. "I said nobody fell. Even in the snow, nobody complained."
While Palmer moved her mailbox from her porch down to the lower level to make it easier for the letter carrier, others on 46th Street don't have anywhere to place a mail box near the street and like the security of having their mail dropped in the slot of their door, CBS 2's Emily Smith reported.
"I told him I can't have it there because anyone on the street can just take the mail out," one woman said.
The homes all have stoops with at least eight to 10 steps and some residents think the letter carrier just doesn't want to climb the steps.
Resident Necha Altman said she put a mailbox alongside her front door and thought she was in the clear.
"He was happy and the next thing I hear, he's not satisfied because it shouldn't be upstairs, it should be downstairs," Altman said. "So now I think this is just getting out of hand. If he can't walk the stairs, if it's hard for him, this is really not the job that he should be doing."
Hikind has called the situation "outrageous."
"Many of these residents are elderly and rely upon their social security checks and medications being delivered to their homes on time, as they always were," Hikind said in a statement. "Moreover, nearly all of the residents are concerned about attaching outside mailboxes that will expose their mail to theft and tampering, especially in this day and age of frequent identity theft."
The Brooklyn Postmaster has told officials the matter is under review.
CBS 2's calls for comment to the Postal Service were not returned.
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