Dog Attack Suspends Mail Delivery To Some New Jersey Homes
ROCHELLE PARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The U.S. Postal Service has suspended delivery to four Rochelle Park homes after a dog attacked a mail carrier.
Joan Patti told WCBS 880's Levon Putney that she was taking her 3-year-old chocolate Lab named Max outside when he got away from her and attacked the mail carrier last month.
Dog Attack Suspends Mail Delivery To Some New Jersey Homes
"Beautiful dog, he's just very heavy. I mean he bit him good, but it was a shame. I feel sorry for the mailman," Patti said.
"The dog leaped and went for the postman, he got bit and he was bleeding bad," neighbor Ronald Zampella told 1010 WINS.
The mail carrier sustained six bites to his arm and had to be hospitalized, Postal Service spokesman George Flood said.
The attack was the dog's third on postal carriers this year and service has been suspended until "we are confident that our employees can deliver the mail safely," Flood said.
The Postal Service is considering moving mailboxes to the curb where the carrier could deliver the mail from the truck, Flood said.
For now, the residents in the cluster of homes on Durand Place must retrieve the mail on their own.
Zampella said this is putting everybody in the area at risk, including his wife whose medication was held at the post office over the weekend.
"Saturday the post office by my house is closed," Zampella said. "So they had the medication locked in the place, we had to wait until Monday to get her medication."
Patti said she doesn't think her neighbors should be penalized.
"I feel terrible for them, it shouldn't be their problem," Patti said. "It's a shame that it had to happen."
Patti said Max now stays inside or tied up in the back.
"He doesn't like it, but he has no choice," Patti said.
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