TOLEDO, Ohio — Mail still isn't being delivered to some people living in west Toledo, though the U.S. Postal Service is offering a temporary solution.
The USPS recently installed several plastic mailboxes on Hillcrest Avenue, near Almeda Drive, where the postal service has refused to deliver mail since July because postal officials say a vicious dog is not properly restrained.
But the plan to have people on Almeda Drive walk to the boxes is leaving Ann Krebser, 88, feeling like she's the one being punished.
"Something's gotta be done because I can't get down there," Krebser said.
The postal service said an unrestrained dog bit a mail carrier months ago, though Toledo Police never received a complaint about a dog bite.
After being forced to pick up their mail at the post office for months, Krebser and her neighbors are now expected to cross busy Hillcrest Avenue and get their mail.
"I can't walk, I'm on machines, I'm on two different things here," she said. "I go to the bedroom, and I get out of breath. I can't go that distance."
Call 11 for Action walked the distance from Krebser's house to Hillcrest Avenue, where the drivers go fast while she moves slow. We also noticed those mailboxes don't have locks.
Krebser said the postal service seems oblivious to her problem and when she called to complain about the solution, an employee told her, "'Now that we have it set up this way,' he says, 'You can just walk down there or drive down there.'"
She said she was offered scenario after scenario that just won't work.
"I don't drive. I got Parkinson's real bad," she said. "Then he said, 'Well, have a neighbor get your mail.' I says, 'I'm telling you something, you just had thefts of mail in your big boxes," she said, referring to recent thefts of checks out of blue postal boxes.
"All the rest of these homes are renters and they're in and out, in and out," she said. "I don't know any of these neighbors."
In a statement to Call 11 for Action, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said, "Unfortunately, the dog is still a safety concern. The mailboxes that were installed are a temporary solution until the owner can commit to restraining the dog."
When Call 11 for Action followed up in an email to ask if locks were going to be added to the boxes and if there was any special guidance for a disabled, elderly woman crossing a busy street, a USPS spokesperson replied, "I do not have any guidance. The boxes do not have locks. Again, this is temporary until the issue is resolved."
Krebser just wishes someone one at the postal service would think about the elderly and disabled.
"It's a dirty shame it's being set up like this," she said. "All they're doing is thinking about their employees."
The USPS said mail carriers can refuse to deliver mail if they feel unsafe, not just to the homeowner with the dog, but to an entire neighborhood, until that dog is properly restrained.
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