Neighbors relieved to be getting mail following Channel 2 investigation

DECATUR, Ga. — People in one DeKalb County neighborhood are raising concerns about missing mail after our story showing piles of mail dumped in the woods.%

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Several residents told Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes they've come to their mailboxes, and when they go to put their key in, they find that a key is already in the slot. So that means anyone could've just taken their mail out.

Harold Pritchett told Fernandes that one day, he came to get his mail, and a key was already in his slot, so anyone could've taken his mail.

When Fernandes looked around, it wasn't only his mail box.

“We've been finding keys hanging out of boxes,” Pritchett said.

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He didn't know what to do with the keys, and he knows it's a federal offense to tamper with someone's mailbox, so he left the keys there and called the post office to complain.

“I've been complaining to the post office for three years,” neighbor Almentha Brown said.

Brown said she sees the same thing often, and it worries her because she receives documents with her Social Security number on them.

“Easily could steal my identity,” Brown told Fernandes.

When both residents saw our story on Wednesday, about a U.S. postal worker allegedly dumping all of this mail in a ditch behind their homes, they realized there are major issues with the mail at the Decatur subdivision on Longview Walk.

Neighbors told Fernandes they want postal investigators to take them seriously.

Postal officials told Fernandes they're looking into why keys are just left in the mailboxes.

However, they wouldn’t tell Fernandes who the mail carrier is on cellphone video she sent them, and what they're going to do about the dumping allegations.

Residents want answers.

“There's no need in hiding that. It's a disgrace. Like I said, it was embarrassing, you know, for them,” Pritchett said.

Postal officials told Fernandes they can probably give us more information once their criminal investigation is complete.

For now, residents told Fernandes they are happy they got their mail Thursday, and they hope it continues.

Cox Media Group