CHARLOTTE, N.C. – An investigation is underway after a local man claims he found bundles of undelivered mail inside trash cans at an apartment complex.
He says he found bank statements, IRS letters, even jury summons.
The man, who doesn’t want to be identified, says he first became suspicious five months ago when he moved into an apartment at the Fairways at Piper Glen.
He would often see the same postal carrier in the mailroom.
“And I would see her when I was in there, usually toward the end or when she was about to leave or I enter at the same time, she’d be throwing some mail in the trash. And it’d also be magazines, you know, junk mail things like that,” he says.
Fast forward to last month, when he says a new carrier took over.
“Three weeks ago, I saw in the trash, at the top, was a letter for a local business that’s about a half mile from here. And when I saw that, I was confused,” he says.
He decided to dig deeper and what he found was upsetting.
“Not trash at all, not junk mail, but very important mail that should not belong in the trash at all. Credit card statements, IRS letters, things like that, jury duty summons,” he explains.
He began packing up what he found, bringing it to the Ballantyne Post Office three different times.
After posting about it on Nextdoor, a postal inspector showed up Tuesday and discovered more mail thrown away.
“The postal inspector took pictures and documented it in the trash,” he says.
We followed the resident to check Wednesday, finding multiple copies of the same magazines in the trash, with addresses about two miles away.
“And the scary thing is, we don’t know where else this is going on. We don’t know how much mail has been thrown away that has medical records, financial records, and who’s getting ahold of information?” he asks.
A USPS Spokesperson sent WCCB Charlotte the following statement:
“The Postal Service employs more than 650,000 employees and is the largest civilian federal workforce in the country. This type of alleged behavior is not tolerated within the Postal Service, and the overwhelming majority of Postal Service employees, who serve the public, are honest, hardworking, and trustworthy individuals who would never consider engaging in this type of behavior.
All inquiries related to this matter are referred to the USPS-Office of the Inspector General.”