The US Postal Service is apologizing after a letter carrier bleeds all over letters and packages and delivers them to homes in the Town of Allegany.
“I’m a retired nurse, and I was thinking this has got to be taken care of right away. This is dangerous,” said Pam Olkosky, area resident who received bloody mail.
On Friday, the Pam Olkosky’s son was outside shoveling her driveway, when the mail carrier pulled up in his car. The mail carrier told her son he had a package for his mom.
“He handed it out the window to my son. And he said listen, you’re bleeding and he says oh yeah, I cut my hand. I got a cut right here,” she said.
Her son offered to get him a towel for his cut hand, but the mail carrier declined the assistance and just drove away.
Then, her husband and son took the bloody mail to the local post office.
“I wanted to show him what I was seeing. There was a droplet of blood on an envelope that was still liquid, you could still see it was shiny and a bubble a droplet and he acted like it was no big deal and just took off with everything,” said Robert Olkosky.
“The post office appears to have done nothing, I mean, we still the same guy is still delivering the mail,” said Pam. “We were told he was going to clean the mailboxes with Clorox and would be wearing gloves until this wound on his hand was healed, but several people got mail the following day that had blood on it.”
A representative from the US Postal Service released a statement apologizing for the incident.
“We apologize for this incident. Unfortunately, our letter carrier cut his finger while delivering some of the mail. For customers concerned about any possibly infectious blood, the USPS has no indication the mail carrier involved has any significant illness capable of transmission through blood and the health risk would be minimal, especially if it’s dried blood. The Postal Service understands the customers have concerns and we apologize for the incident. Anyone who has soiled mail should throw it out in a plastic bag in appropriate trash receptacles. “
We’ve followed up with the post office on if the postal carrier is going to wear gloves or clean the mailboxes, but we haven’t heard back from them regarding that.
