(WSVN) - For 15 years, neither rain nor hot days stopped his mail delivery. Then one day, it suddenly stopped. Why? A hint: It might have had something to do with our nation’s president. Patrick Fraser has the story we call “Postal Protest.”
You take it for granted. You come home and your mail was delivered.
Rudy Mueller, mail delivery stopped: “The mail came to my front door, always came to my front door.”
Rudy has lived at his Fort Lauderdale house for 15 years.
Then, three years ago, he got a new mail carrier, and went out to introduce himself.
Rudy Mueller: “‘And if you need anything like water or air conditioning, whatever you need, just knock on my door and I will help you out.'”
Everything was great … until January of this year.
Patrick Fraser: “All of a sudden, your mail stopped being delivered to your house?”
Rudy Mueller: “Yes.”
Rudy says instead of the mail being dropped in his mailbox, it was thrown on the swale.
Rudy Mueller: “It was right here.”
Patrick Fraser: “And when you say the swale, you mean she just throws it in the grass?”
Rudy Mueller: “In the grass, yes, on the swale. It was a rainy day; it was all wet.”
Rudy complained. Then his mail carrier stopped delivering completely, and he had to go to the post office to get his mail.
Patrick Fraser: “What changed after three years?”
Rudy Mueller: “Well, before — I don’t have any Trump signs.”
Rudy says in January after the presidential election, he put this Trump sign up in his garage near his American flag and a Trump sticker on his car.
Patrick Fraser: “Do you like Trump?”
Rudy Mueller: “Oh yeah, I love Trump! Trump is my president.”
Rudy wanted to show his support for President Trump. He didn’t expect it to cause a postal problem.
Rudy Mueller: “She was delivering my mail all the time, and then I put up the Trump sign, and she stopped delivering.”
We watched the mail carrier. Each day she put the mail in the few boxes on Rudy’s street.
At the majority of houses, she got out, walked to the home and dropped it in their mailbox like she used to do for Rudy.
Then as we watched, as she got to Rudy’s house, each day she just drove by.
Rudy Mueller: “And one time I stopped her and said, ‘Why are you not delivering my mail?’ She started laughing and said, ‘Good luck with that.'”
We then asked the mail carrier, who said her name was Saudia, if the Trump sign bothered her.
Saudia, mail carrier: “No, no, no, no, no. It’s all about the mailbox. It has nothing to do with Trump.”
Instead, she said she stopped mail delivery because Rudy moved his mailbox a few months ago.
Saudia: “His mailbox was on the side of the road, and he took his box from the side of the road and moved it up to the house.”
The carrier said regulations require her to deliver to houses that have always had mailboxes there. But if you have a mailbox on the swale and move it to the house, she can’t deliver to the house.
Saudia: “By him moving his box, that’s gonna take more time for me to get out and go walk to his box.”
We went to Google Maps to get the answer.
In 2008, there was no mailbox in the swale at Rudy’s house. A few months later, no mailbox in the swale. Not one in 2011, and not one in 2014.
Rudy says that’s because his mailbox has never been in the swale.
Rudy Mueller: “No, never had a mailbox on the swale. Never.”
We then contacted the postal service to see if the Trump sign was why the delivery stopped.
Because of postal policy, I was told, they could not discuss the details, but a spokesperson wrote, “This is a personnel issue which is being addressed.”
A postal manager went to Rudy’s house, offered an apology and gave his phone number to Rudy to call him if there are any further delivery issues.
The spokesperson then added, “We have a new carrier on the route effective today.”
And that solved Rudy’s problem.
Rudy Mueller: “After you guys talk to them, they start delivering my mail.”
Rudy now has mail delivery, still has his Trump signs, and hopes no more postal problems.
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